CHAPTER 6: SOLUTIONS TO FLOOD RISK IN EMNAMBITHI/LADYSMITH LM AND THE VALUE OF
6.5. Perceived solutions and recommendations on flood risks
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112 | P a g e business to comply with environmental and water legislation (ibid). Policing and imposing fines could reduce the illegal dumping that could result in the blockage of the town’s storm water system.
Other approaches proposed by Respondent 7: LG Stakeholder-Environmental Affairs (2015) are that there must be more emphasis towards environmental education and awareness to talk about climate risks as these directly affect flooding. This also involves the dissemination of the risks and opportunities emerging from the sustainable and unsustainable use of the EI as this can provide certainty and options in relation to the use of EI in different scenarios presented by uncertainties.
…. due to the shift towards a new geological period known as Anthropocene17; our awareness campaign is also aiming towards behavioural change on reducing our impact to climate change and also adapt to the environmental changes without severely affecting our natural resources that protects us from the extreme climatic events. As for me, I do presentations and raise awareness about the sustainable use of the natural resources. For example, I am focusing mainly on; waste and pollution. We are targeting the schools or educational centres, churches, NGOs, associations of agriculture, among other users. Our aim is to educate and to also disseminate the information about the risks and the adaptation strategies in the EIs they use. In this way, we can ensure that we promote capacity building through community participation at large (Respondent 7: LG Stakeholder-Environmental Affairs, 2015).
In return for this effort, the respondent claimed that they get more compliance. For instance, he stated that "even though there are some problems, people are reporting the environmental crimes such as illegal sand mining Therefore, it can be concluded that the awareness is going well in comparison to doing nothing" (Respondent 7: NG Stakeholder-Environmental Affairs, 2015).
There is an alignment between the practices of the stakeholders in the national government (Respondent 7: LG Stakeholder-Environmental Affairs, 2015) and the work of the LG Department:
Parks and Gardens based on the concept of Going Green seen in their greening campaigns of the municipality. This is the case as Respondent 7: NG Stakeholder-Environmental Affairs (2015) acknowledged the contribution of the municipality in their strategy and plan to provide the Parks (and active open spaces) in Ladysmith Floodplain and other areas of the LM. Respondent 7: LG Stakeholder- Environmental Affairs, (2015) added that the idea of landscape design and the concept of “going green” is forming part of good practice. It is symbolising the interest in tapping into the value of environmental services in which the EI of the municipality provides.
17 Anthropocene as defined by Respondent 7 is a period where the extreme climate change events are linked with the activities of the human. These activities include but not limited to deforestation, industrial emission which exacerbate human suffering to the activities of climate change.
113 | P a g e Due to excitement when the engineering solution was delivered to the public, the incorrect message was painted, as some believe that these solutions can end the floods whereas in fact the future is not predictable. In this sense, the dams as main example of human-made hydraulic systems are not just technological installations but they are symbols of power that human use to conquer water. In some cases, the conquest of water can be used to subjugate other humans with less power (Tvedt, 2015).
However, in the context of Ladysmith it is not quite clear if high authority to subjugate others [public and minorities] led to the installation of the dams. The study showed that there is public support and previous public request for the dam in order to resolve flooding in the town of Ladysmith. From understanding this meaning of the dam when I was a participant in the study area, reading the newspapers about the flood complaints (before the completion of the dam in 1998), and also listening to the lyrics of the local music albums (i.e. the Ladysmith Black Mambazo double time Grammy award winning musicians) after the completion of the Qedusizi dam, indicates that there was a public and business request for the flood attenuation dam. The Qedusizi flood attenuation dam aimed at increasing the resilience of Ladysmith residents and business in order to address the historical flood risk.
In the track list of the album of The Very Best of Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Disc 2 of song 3), the Ladysmith Black Mambazo recorded a song named after Qedusizi which was based on the newly designed flood control dam (Shabalala, 2004). From interpreting the meaning and the message carried by this song, the researcher argues that this song shows that this dam is seen as a symbol of conquest of the floods due to the overflow of the Klip River. This becomes even more clear in the lyrics of this song when they say Zonkeziny’izinyanga zehlulekile which means that all other flood control schemes have failed. Unlike other solutions previously adopted in Ladysmith, Qedusizi represents a symbol of conquest of flood suffering caused by the Klip River in the town of Ladysmith.
With the introduction to Qedusizi dam which was welcomed as a flood protection technology, there was hope that previous flood suffering will be ended (Shabalala, 2004). In this sense, Qedusizi is seen as traditional healer or doctor whose skills overpower all others on dealing with the ‘disease’ thus far.
Even though this song is an indication of joy and celebration of the hard engineering solution, it over- estimated the conclusion or the merits of the dam. This means that some of the residents did not understand the power of flooding especially under the uncertainty of climate change, as the dam may not resolve the floods in the long term.
114 | P a g e By contrast, the research has also revealed that the high authority to subjugate others [public and minorities] of their cultural and social practices used the installation of the huge dams indirectly. As there are Zulu Communities which form part of the tribes studies by Bernard (2003), it has been argued that the Southern African Bantu tribes were subjugated or alienated through modernisation from their cultural water use practices during colonialism, apartheid and even in the post- apartheid area (via privatisation of water sites for commercial practices or damming of the rivers). The damming of the river subjugates the communities offsite as it stops the water from flowing to the downstream communities. In this sense, the groups of African black communities were subject to evacuation either forcefully removed or manipulated to leave their rich water sites because huge water projects, such as the construction of Inanda Dam in the eThekwini municipality would take place. However, this control of water resources in South Africa denied them access to their cultural water use practices.
This section on the perceived solutions and recommendation on flood risks management by using EI have shown that some respondents propose an integrated approach in managing EI where the knowledge of government and the community meets and work in harmony. This means that the management of the EI of the Klip River should be community based, allowing the residents to build capacity and be educated about the sustainable management of the important ecosystems services.
The section has also revealed that Ladysmith, KZN is one of the places where the flood control dams were compared with the work of the most skilled traditional doctors who cure the most difficult diseases because few other human interventions here have as much potential to symbolize power and the conquest of flood water. By relating the World Systems Approach (WSA) in these results, one gets to understand how people tamed the power of water, and how water shaped society and inspired innovation in response to its threat (i.e. floods) (Tvedt, 2015).