scholarly journals Guest Houses, Drought and Water Management Strategies in the Cape Winelands, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10(5)) ◽  
pp. 1549-1561
Author(s):  
Gustav Visser ◽  
Jamie Cloete

Tourism is a dynamic system essentially connected to all aspects of human and natural environments. Among these tourism systems and products, providers of tourist accommodation stand out. Within this context, water provision is crucial for tourist accommodation. Unfortunately, climate variability, and therefore, water availability, can and does impact tourism systems and tourism products, perhaps disproportionately so. In South Africa generally, and in an established tourism destination region such as the Cape Winelands in particular, guest houses are key role-players in the tourist industry. Nonetheless, from 2015 to 2018, this destination region experienced a crippling long-lasting drought, leading to fears of an imminent “Day Zero” – a point at which taps run dry. This would have been calamitous for tourism. To avert this, various water management strategies were implemented by Stellenbosch guest houses – the focal point of the Cape Winelands tourism region – to cope with and adapt to the drought. This study sought to examine the water management strategies manifested in the study region. It is concluded that various strategies were followed, and some appear to be permanent, rather than once-off responses. While these strategies might lead to more responsible water management strategies in tourist accommodation going forward, it appears that adopting sustainable water use practices was only done under duress and serious resistance from some guests resulted. It may be that water supply augmentation is the only way to preserve the tourism industry.

Author(s):  
Irma Booyens ◽  
Christian M. Rogerson ◽  
Jayne M. Rogerson ◽  
Tom Baum

Although the literature on COVID-19 is expanding, particularly in relation to crisis management responses pursued by large tourism enterprises, currently few studies exist on the responses of small tourism firms and more specifically of the crisis management practices of small and microaccom modation establishments. The aim in this study is to investigate the business management responses of small tourism firms to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and restrictions in South Africa. Themes of concern are whether enterprises have been able to sustain operations and adopt certain coping mechanisms or management strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s impact. The article reports on an interview survey of small and microenterprises engaged in accommodation services (N = 75) in South Africa under lockdown restrictions as a means of assessing the responses and coping strategies during an unprecedented crisis of this core component of the country’s tourism industry. Among key findings are that small and microlodging firms that have suffered severe financial losses because of the COVID-19 shock have few viable mechanisms to cope with the impact of the crisis and that government support to aid recovery has been insufficient in South Africa. This research contributes to the limited body of international scholarship that examines how small and microaccommodation firms, a major group and contributor of many economies, are navigating the unprecedented COVID-19 environment.


Water Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kwame Adom ◽  
Mulala Danny Simatele

Abstract Many countries in the world, including South Africa, are water-stressed with increasing pressure on their water resources due to population growth, climate change, and inadequate funding. Post independence in 1994, many policies and programmes were introduced by the government with the aim of promoting water management. While these policies and strategies achieved much in terms of water provision to communities and households, they failed to establish a water-conscious country with sufficient knowledge and expertise in water management. In addition, these policies and programmes are outdated, compartmentalised, complex, and lack robust water governance with resilient stakeholder partnerships that advance the more explicit second phase of the NDP to achieve water security under the threat of climate change. Using data collection tools inspired by the traditional method of participatory research, this paper analyses the structural and systematic factors hindering the implementation of comprehensive policies to achieve water security in South Africa. There is, therefore, an urgent need for South Africa to establish an independent water regulator to ensure coordination between different government departments, including the National Treasury, to strengthen weak governance capacity and to make it independent to attract private equity into the sector and to recover fiscal deficits in the water sector.


Author(s):  
Nicolette Glen ◽  
Kevin Frank Mearns

While the tourism industry as an ideal industry to fast track poverty alleviation in South Africa, the uptake of sustainable tourism practices amongst many players, including small accommodation establishments (SAEs) remains a challenge. The lack of awareness of the benefits and value that sustainable tourism practices may bring, is amplified by the absence of appropriate policies, low collaboration levels, a shortage of capacity to implement sustainable tourism practices and a perceived weak business case for sustainable tourism implementation amongst SAE owners and managers. This paper presents a proposed framework that may be used to support the implementation of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs. The framework is a flexible, adaptable and scalable tool that assists in communicating a specific approach that could be utilised by role players including SAE owners, public sector entities, private sector business, industry professionals and community members. The essence of the framework is to support the implementation of sustainable tourism practises amongst SAEs, thus enhancing the overall sustainability of the tourism sector while simultaneously addressing the sustainability of the destination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonwabile Mancotywa

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) is one of the mainline Christian denominations with a very good history. However, it was not immune from the larger political influence of South Africa that was polarised by apartheid. This article is intended to look at the formation known as the Black Methodist Consultation (BMC), which at that time had an individual member who played an important role in its development and activities. Sox Leleki was one of the key role players of this movement inside the Methodist Church


1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J. Hochmuth

Efficient N management practices usually involve many potential strategies, but always involve choosing the correct amount of N and the coupling of N management to efficient water management. Nitrogen management strategies are integral parts of improved production practices recommended by land-grant universities such as the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Univ. of Florida. This paper, which draws heavily on research and experience in Florida, outlines the concepts and technologies for managing vegetable N fertilization to minimize negative impacts on the environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3(J)) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
Lerato C. Bapela ◽  
Collins C. Ngwakwe ◽  
Mokoko P. Sebola

This paper evaluated the relationship between water infrastructure financing and water provision in South Africa. The research followed a quantitative research design; secondary data for water infrastructure financing and water provision in South Africa was obtained from the Trans - Caledon Tunneling Agency (TCTA) and the World Bank for the period 1994 - 2014 . The regression results indicated two separate findings which offers unique contribution to the current literature; results from water asset finance as a single independent variable on water provision showed a significant relationship. However, an addition of two control variables , corruption and violence, neutralised the effectiveness of water asset finance on water provision to the extent that water asset finance became less significant with a P value of 0.05. The paper makes a nuance contribution from the findings, which specifically is that finance alone may not deliver target water provision if corruption and violence is left unbridled. The paper thus recommends the need for public policy makers to control the rate of corruption and violence to enable effective application of water infrastructure finance in water provision. The paper also recommends the need for further research on other government departments to integrate corruption and violence as control variables. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6478
Author(s):  
Amemarlita Matos ◽  
Laura Barraza ◽  
Isabel Ruiz-Mallén

This study is based on ethnographic research that analyzes how traditional knowledge and local beliefs on biodiversity conservation relates to the local ability to adapt and be resilient to climatic changes in two communities around Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique: Nhanfisse in the buffer zone and Muanandimae in the core area. A total of 78 semi-structured interviews with heads of households were conducted. We found that both communities carried out practices and held beliefs associated with conservation, such as protecting trees and animal species considered sacred or perceived as beneficial for human life in terms of water provision and agricultural production. In addition to traditional ceremonies that respond to extreme climatic events such as drought and flood, other adaptation strategies used by the communities include moving to neighboring areas in search of better living conditions and using forest products in times of scarcity. We discuss that the management of the park should be agreed on, in a shared way, between local communities and conservation agents to ensure that these areas continue to perform the ecological, subsistence, and spiritual functions required. Our research results contribute to a better understanding of local adaptation dynamics towards extreme climatic events and improvement of management strategies.


Author(s):  
Chibuike Chiedozie Ibebuchi

AbstractAtmospheric circulation is a vital process in the transport of heat, moisture, and pollutants around the globe. The variability of rainfall depends to some extent on the atmospheric circulation. This paper investigates synoptic situations in southern Africa that can be associated with wet days and dry days in Free State, South Africa, in addition to the underlying dynamics. Principal component analysis was applied to the T-mode matrix (variable is time series and observation is grid points at which the field was observed) of daily mean sea level pressure field from 1979 to 2018 in classifying the circulation patterns in southern Africa. 18 circulation types (CTs) were classified in the study region. From the linkage of the CTs to the observed rainfall data, from 11 stations in Free State, it was found that dominant austral winter and late austral autumn CTs have a higher probability of being associated with dry days in Free State. Dominant austral summer and late austral spring CTs were found to have a higher probability of being associated with wet days in Free State. Cyclonic/anti-cyclonic activity over the southwest Indian Ocean, explained to a good extent, the inter-seasonal variability of rainfall in Free State. The synoptic state associated with a stronger anti-cyclonic circulation at the western branch of the South Indian Ocean high-pressure, during austral summer, leading to enhanced low-level moisture transport by southeast winds was found to have the highest probability of being associated with above-average rainfall in most regions in Free State. On the other hand, the synoptic state associated with enhanced transport of cold dry air, by the extratropical westerlies, was found to have the highest probability of being associated with (winter) dryness in Free State.


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