Africa’s low-lying coastal cities are among the first to experience the effects of climate change – in the form of wild storms that come in from the sea, flooding streets and buildings, and drowning ageing sewage and drainage systems. Since these urban areas are also frequently located on rivers, another threat comes from seasonal flood waters driven by heavy rains upstream. Mozambique’s Indian Ocean cities are among these vulnerable urban areas, but the damage caused by tropical storms and flooding rivers reaches even inland villages and towns. Mozambique ranks third among African countries for being most exposed to risks from multiple weather-related hazards. With rapidly growing populations to serve, and tough competition for government funding, water managers in the country’s urban areas face considerable challenges.
Rebuilding for resilience
Recognising these issues, GWP Southern Africa, through WACDEP and in partnership with the Mozambican Directorate of Water Resources Management and the Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Administration, identified urban flood water management as a critical challenge to development. Working together, planners from different government departments from water- and climate-related sectors developed a cross-sectoral project responding to floods in urban areas. They proposed an integrated urban water management (IUWM) approach to address poor drainage, sanitation, and water supply in vulnerable towns in Mozambique.
IUWM is an approach that promotes a circular economy – a system aimed at eliminating waste and promoting continual reuse of resources – in urban areas. Cities and towns using this approach adjust certain practices of planning and effective management, while recognizing their local socio-economic context. This approach applies the principles of reusing, reducing, and recycling. Sanitation and wastewater management are seen as business opportunities that can generate income and employment, have a positive impact on the environment, and contribute improvements to the quality of life. Two towns in Mozambique provided WACDEP with the opportunity to apply these principles.
The right people
In response to the capacity needs and gaps identified in water security and climate-resilient development planning, WACDEP facilitated training of government officials. The capacity needs assessment engaged the right people: planners and technical officers, and senior policy-makers from a cross-section of the country’s water sector institutions. Building on the principles of Mozambique’s National Climate Change Response Strategy, these officials learned in a series of training workshops about the practicalities of climate-resilient project preparation and investment planning. They gained a new understanding of the needs of project investors, financing mechanisms, and of ways to include adaptation to changing climate conditions in water projects. The participants also received support and coaching from water profession mentors to make sure that what they were learning could be aligned to existing Mozambican institutional knowledge and practice.
Having absorbed the theory through workshops, coaching, and accredited training modules from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the participants began to apply their learning to real life by producing a concept note for an urban flood management project.
Life-saving solutions
Choosing an urban setting for the project was not difficult. Child mortality in the towns of Chimoio and Inhambane was higher than in many other parts of the country, and this could be linked to the deteriorating drainage systems and poor toilet facilities in both municipalities. Only the most central parts of town had some solid waste collection. Floodwaters were creating health crises.
The group of newly trained planners identified institutional roles, mandates, and possible project partners and promoters. They examined options for, and barriers to, project implementation, and they discussed possible sources of funding. The project, while focused on flood management, had to also address the inseparable problems of sanitation and solid waste management; the planners made these linkages clear. Finally, they submitted their completed concept note for an IUWM feasibility study, detailed design, and priority infrastructure to the African Water Facility. But the concept note was not the only outcome of this concentrated work: the participants returned to their sector posts with a whole network of new colleagues from other sectors, and with shared knowledge and experience.
Learning through working together
In 2016, the African Water Facility announced an award of €2.1 million to carry out the work the concept note had proposed: Development of an IUWM Masterplan and Feasibility Study for Urban Sanitation, Drainage and Solid Waste Management in Chimoio and Inhambane in Mozambique. Putting GWP-SAF’s expertise in capacity development and stakeholder engagement to good use had meant that participants in the capacity-building process could learn to work together and achieve sustainable outcomes by promoting integrated approaches.