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Funds of R100m to beef up weather service

• Creecy says R100m will be allocated over three years

Bekezela Phakathi Parliamentary Writer With Denene Erasmus phakathib@businesslive.co.za

The government is allocating the SA Weather Service (SAWS) R100m as it scrambles to ensure that the country’s ability to predict and issue early warnings for severe weather events remains “state of the art”. Business Day first reported this week on concern about the SAWS’s forecasting capabilities weakening due to funding constraints, vandalised equipment and the loss of rainfall observation stations, meaning the country may struggle to predict and issue early warnings for severe weather events such as the heavy rains and flooding that devastated KwaZulu-Natal this April.

The government is allocating the SA Weather Service (SAWS) R100m as it scrambles to ensure that the country’s ability to predict and issue early warnings for severe weather events remains “state of the art”.

Business Day first reported this week on concern about the SAWS’s forecasting capabilities weakening due to funding constraints, equipment being vandalised and loss of rainfall observation stations, meaning the country may struggle to predict and issue early warnings for severe weather events such as the heavy rains and flooding that devastated KwaZulu-Natal this April.

But this week, SAWS CEO Ishaam Abader said that while it was true that the entity had lost many manual rainfall stations and faced financial and capacity constraints, the “decline in the number of manual rainfall stations” had not compromised the entity’s ability to provide accurate forecasting for SA and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

In her budget speech in parliament on Wednesday, forestry, fisheries & environmental affairs minister Barbara Creecy echoed Abader’s assessment.

“Recent media coverage has cast doubt on the weather service’s ability to predict severe weather events and protect our citizens from the impact of climate change.

“These reports are untrue,” the minister said.

“Weather warnings were issued ahead of the floods from 11-12 April and were updated with the intensity of the weather event, to a level 5 warning on the morning [of] 11 April and to a level 8 warning or severe impact by 8pm that night.”

Creecy said that to ensure that, despite revenue shortfalls, SA’s forecasting ability is “state of the art” R100m will be allocated to the SAWS over three years to upgrade its infrastructure, starting with R15m in the current year. The department’s total budget for the year amounts to about R9bn.

The allocations to the SAWS could provide much needed relief for the struggling entity, which had to convert a R124m government infrastructure grant into operating expenditure in 2020/2021 as it battled cash flow challenges that arose as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During that period travel restrictions deprived the SAWS of much-needed revenue as income from the aviation sector dropped from R128.49m in 2019/2020 to R32.51m in 2020/2021. In the previous year

RECENT [UNTRUE] MEDIA COVERAGE HAS CAST DOUBT ON THE WEATHER SERVICE’S ABILITY TO PREDICT SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS

the total government grant income increased by about 25%, from R271m to R361m year on year. Included under the grant income was the capital expenditure allocation of R18m.

However, the total revenue, which includes government grants and aviation instrument maintenance income, among other income streams, decreased by 5.22% from about R445m to R421m year on year.

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2022-05-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

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