DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA’S INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS: POLICY, PRACTICE AND COVID-19 IMPLICATIONS

The rise of informal settlements in the global south during the latter part of the twentieth century led to the role of disaster management being recognized as a crucial aspect of urban planning. As a result of this, the United Nations called for all the world’s governments to develop and integrate proactive and preventative disaster management policies into their respective countries’ development plans while integrating informal settlements in their urban planning initiatives in a bid to create inclusive cities. South Africa, being one of the countries that are heavily impacted by informal settlements, was swift to embrace these international recommendations, especially from a policy making perspective. The implementation of these policies has however been overshadowed by lacklustre governmentperformance with respect to reducing the disaster risks associated with informal settlements or the inclusion of these areas in urban development. (hazards and lack of services aggravating disaster vulnerability) This article, therefore, explores the policy-practice realities that have given birth to the challenges faced by South Africa’s post-apartheid disaster management initiatives, especially with regard to the disaster vulnerability of informal settlement dwellers. By assessing how international best practice recommendations have influenced the country’s disaster management policy, the article proceeds to analyse the implementation inadequacies that have induced the existing policy-practice disjuncture, and the resultant safety and socio-economic concerns that arise for the country’s informal settlement dwellers. Also, with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic triggering a state of national disaster in the country, the article analyses the aggravated vulnerability of contacting and spreading of the virus amongst informal settlement residents, along with the socio-economic implications that the national lockdown restrictions have had on these areas. The findings of this article suggest that, although South Africa’s disaster management policy and legislation has comprehensively developed the necessary guidelines for all the spheres of government to play their respective roles in the country’s disaster reduction and recovery initiatives, Information from the government’s databases suggests that the implementation of risk preventative disaster management approaches has been extremely sporadic in informal settlements, despite these areas accounting for 75 per cent of where the country’s disasters eventstake place. Findings also suggest that South Africa’s informal settlement dwellers have been the hardest hit by the Covid-19 disaster, intensifying the levels of exclusion in these areas

Effect of Hedging-Integrated Rule Curves on the Performance of the Pong Reservoir (India) During Scenario-Neutral Climate Change Perturbations

This study has evaluated the effects of improved, hedging-integrated reservoir rule curves on the current and climate-change-perturbed future performances of the Pong reservoir, India. The Pong reservoir was formed by impounding the snow- and glacial-dominated Beas River in Himachal Pradesh. Simulated historic and climate-change runoff series by the HYSIM rainfall-runoff model formed the basis of the analysis. The climate perturbations used delta changes in temperature (from 0° to +2 °C) and rainfall (from −10 to +10 % of annual rainfall). Reservoir simulations were then carried out, forced with the simulated runoff scenarios, guided by rule curves derived by a coupled sequent peak algorithm and genetic algorithms optimiser. Reservoir performance was summarised in terms of reliability, resilience, vulnerability and sustainability. The results show that the historic vulnerability reduced from 61 % (no hedging) to 20 % (with hedging), i.e., better than the 25 % vulnerability often assumed tolerable for most water consumers. Climate change perturbations in the rainfall produced the expected outcomes for the runoff, with higher rainfall resulting in more runoff inflow and vice-versa. Reduced runoff caused the vulnerability to worsen to 66 % without hedging; this was improved to 26 % with hedging. The fact that improved operational practices involving hedging can effectively eliminate the impacts of water shortage caused by climate change is a significant outcome of this study

Application of Artificial Neural Network Model for Improved Power System Protection in Port Harcourt 33 kV Network

Electric power distribution networks are exposed to the environment due to their length, for this reason, they are mostly affected by faults. These faults disrupt the continuous flow of power supply. There is also an associated loss of power that is generated that also determines the state of the economy. In order to reduce system downtime, it is necessary to integrate a system that detects and classifies faults quickly in order to hasten its clearance. This will bring about improvement in the efficiency and integrity of the power network. The artificial neural network as proposed in this study is meant to detect, classify and locate fault on the Rukpokwu 33-kV feeder of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC). Fault detector, classifier and locator, with feed-forward back propagation were employed in the research. Matlab Simulink software was used to model and simulate the distribution network. The model was trained using s values of voltages and currents. With the simulation results, the efficiency of the proposed network was demonstrated for fault detection, classification and location. Mean square error (MSE) and confusion matrix were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. Results showed that the acceptable MSE of 0.00000027736 and an accuracy of 100% were achieved, which is satisfactory

Occurrence of selected endocrine disrupting compounds in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa:

Endocrine-disrupting compounds are attracting attention worldwide because of their effects on living things in the environment. Ten endocrine disrupting compounds: 4-nonylphenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, estrone, 17β-estradiol, bisphenol A, 4-tertoctylphenol, triclosan, atrazine, imidazole and 1,2,4-triazole were investigated in four rivers and wastewater treatment plants in this study. Rivers were sampled at upstream, midstream and downstream reaches, while the influent and effluent samples of wastewater were collected from treatment plants near the receiving rivers. Sample waters were freeze-dried followed by extraction of the organic content and purification by solid-phase extraction. Concentrations of the compounds in the samples were determined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The instrument was operated in the positive electrospray ionization (ESI) mode

Living without the State: A Rear View Mirror of Nigeria\u27s 50 Years of Independence

The purpose of this analysis is twofold. First, it undertakes a critical review of Nigeria’s performance within the five decades of its nationhood. Second, it compares its performance vis-à-vis a number of new states which started almost at the same time in both Africa and Asia using basic economic and political indicators. The article, however, infers that Nigerian political-economic performance is appalling, which has subjected citizens to living almost without the state in all ramifications. For a balanced view, the analysis argues that although there are few giant strides in terms of educational development and reduction in infant mortality as a result of improved health facilities, the gap between intent and actual practices is still very wide. The analysis recommends that the policymakers should visualize the next five decades and formulate appropriate reforms so that Nigeria may not eventually become a failed state

Abortion Laws in Nigeria: A Case for Reform

The available statistics indicate that over 1,000,000 abortions occur in Nigeria annually, representing about 33 abortions per 1,000 women of child bearing age. It has also been asserted that illegal abortion is responsible for about 11% of maternal death in Nigeria and 50% of such deaths involve adolescents and young women. Although, it may be difficult to confirm these reports and statistics by different researchers, mainly because of the absence of official figures owing to the clandestine nature of abortion in Nigeria, there is no doubt that abortions are generally procured by women for various reasons, namely: financial and emotional inability to care for a baby; fear of rejection by partners, parents, peer groups, religious and community leaders and society if the pregnancy is discovered; as means of birth control; physical and mental reasons; if they are too young or too sick to have a baby; desire to get rid of unwanted pregnancies arising from several reasons including rape or failure of contraception, etc. Unfortunately, the state of the law on abortion in Nigeria has failed to recognize these realities thereby unwittingly encouraging illegal abortions with the attendant consequences. This paper examines the state of the law on abortion in Nigeria in comparison with other jurisdictions with a view to demonstrating that the Nigerian law is archaic and in dire need of reform