Drought and water crisis in Southern Africa

This report is divided into two parts. Part I provides an analysis of the drought situation in Western Cape, South Africa, as of January 2018. Part II presents an analysis of the medium to long-term spatial patterns and temporal behaviour of climate variables (precipitation and temperature) in Southern Africa. It gives a regional overview of the recent water crisis in Western Cape, and complements the first part of this report. 

By placing the 2018 Western Cape water crisis in a temporal and regional context, this report aims to help the community (including African policymakers) better understand the exceptional character of these phenomena, their periodicity and whether these exceptional events are occurring at a regional scale. It will help policymakers to better define future mitigation, resilience and adaptation policies and the spatial scale at which these measures should be implemented.