Pretoria - The advent of the much-feared global warming and El Niño phenomena is often talked about as a distant threat.
However, these conditions finally hit South Africa this year, causing fear and confusion as the government and other stakeholders scrambled to contain the problem.
Drought, extreme heatwaves and water shortages became the reality for most cities across the country.
For Pretoria, the heatwave which hit just as winter bowed out was almost normal because the city is generally hot. In mid-August, as residents started preparing for warm days as usual, filling up swimming pools and packing their woolly clothing away, temperatures rose to above the normal late 20s.
Climate change became the buzzword as the heat continued and the mercury continued to rise.
Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs, spoke about climate change and how it had affected South Africa's weather patterns.
Molewa said among the country's strategies was a R95 billion adaptation and mitigation plan. She said the country had to be prepared, or face extreme effects.
But extreme conditions somehow came sooner than expected as a massive heatwave swept through the country.
By mid-September there were signs that it was here to stay.
Temperatures climbed up and into the 30s, hitting 34° Celsius by the end of September before giving the citizens a break.
And just as it returned to stay on a bit longer, getting as close to the 40s as possible, warnings of a drought hit the news, and then the truth of low water reserves became a reality.
Media briefings were called and pictures of dying livestock, parched land and withered crops released.
The Northern Cape and parts of Mpumalanga, North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo were hardest hit and in need of assistance from government and everyone else.
Water restrictions were announced in the city and residents urged to use water sparingly, with the warning of fines for those who did not comply.
City residents were asked not to water their lawns, wash their cars and refrain from filling in swimming pools for up to 12 hours of the day.
Ministers and other government officials on the drought and water committee spoke of the dire situations facing the country. They did say there was no real need to panic, while encouraging people to be level-headed and do the right thing.
Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said the drought affected 173 of the 1 628 water supply schemes nationally. These served an approximate 2.7 million households in the national population, a situation she said was not as bad as projected.
“Water leakages and careless use of water are the problem,” she said.
That and ageing infrastructure, as well as evaporation due to increased temperatures, posed a serious threat to water availability.
Fixing infrastructure and controlling water usage were the answer, task team leader Pravin Gordhan added.
Weather experts got their heads together and emerged to announce that the country was experiencing the hottest and most extreme weather conditions since the last El Niño phenomenon hit the country in 1997 and 1998. They said the heat conditions could get worse.
By then, the heatwave had taken the country into some of the hottest days in the 150-year history of weather measurement, and this was due to both global warming and the El Niño phenomenon, they said.
El Niño effect was explained as the warming up of the Pacific Ocean above its normal temperatures and this was something that happened every two to seven years.
A smaller El Niño had been experienced in the summer of 2014/15, and it was directly responsible for the heatwave and drought.
Weather experts warned that the situation would persist well into autumn and the start of winter next year, but they also said it was summer and so the expected thunder and lightning storms would be experienced.
A South African Weather Services conference held last month sought to highlight the danger posed by lightning, and said it killed many more people in the country than reported.
The experts said one bolt of lightning had the capacity to constitute a nuclear power station, and there were cases where lightning struck from great distances - from a stormy area and strike in a sunny one.
Lightning, they said, was the most consistent and devastating killer in the country whose effects would be felt in full force as soon as the heatwaves broke and heavy thunderstorms came.
Lightning was largely underestimated and its effects under-reported, when in reality it placed South Africa among the top three countries with the highest death rates from lightning. It not only killed people but ravaged livestock and destroyed buildings and other infrastructure.
Cultural and traditional beliefs played a role in under-reporting of deaths from lightning, as those who died from it were not sent to hospitals or mortuaries.
Instead, they are buried as soon as possible to avoid the “curse” which had killed them from spreading to other family members.
About 300 people died from lightning, but the figures could be much higher, participants at the conference were told.
And then, as the heatwave rose and fell, experts sat in another Pretoria conference to discuss the truth of more extreme conditions expected across South Africa.
The country was dry and had experienced water issues since time immemorial.
Government had known about the drought well in advance but failed to act accordingly in preparation, they said.
Government departments responsible for planning had ignored experts and dismissed them as doomsday conspirators and had waited until disaster struck to get into panic mode.
The answer, experts said, lay in preparing for the future, investing in measures to save water, setting up structures to safeguard these and promoting civil responsibility being among the most crucial strategies of all.
And, according to the experts, the higher temperatures still await us into 2016.
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