The TRMP has been designed with a holistic and innovative vision for riverine management in South Africa. The TRMPproject will create community led cooperatives for the management and removal of waste and alien vegetation in the project areas. The cooperatives will employ local disadvantaged populations and therefore provide a valuable contribution to securing the livelihoods of local communities. The TRMP significantly increases the city’s resilience to climate change through ecosystem-based and community-based transformative adaptation of the city’s rivers and streams.

Objectives:

To build a compelling Business Case (based on Cost Benefit Analysis) for transforming some 7,400 km riverine corridors:

• to be resilient to climate change
• to be valuable places which are clean, safe, healthy, useful and pleasant open spaces
• to close the loops with recycling
• to create jobs and build the green economy
• to build communities
• to work in partnership with all affected stakeholders
• to impact positively on the City as a whole.

The TRMP builds on a range of transformative river management projects in Durban and Kwa Zulu Natal, notably including the 7-year-old Sihlanzimvelo stream cleaning programme. This programme involves utilising community co-operatives for stream management and in so doing builds enterprises and creates jobs: a good example of what is called the “Green New Deal” or transformative adaptation. This model will be expanded to a broad range of river conditions, ecological infrastructures, land ownership and land use conditions to anchor the green economy and develop the social and economic capital of the city. 

The Business Case will use cost benefit analysis to persuade a range of funders including the municipality itself, businesses and property owners in Durban and global climate funders to make the investments required.  It will be grounded in GIS based vulnerability assessment linked to an advanced hydrological model and the best available climate circulation models.

As part of the CFF’s commitment to optimising the impact of its support for eThekwini it will implement a knowledge-sharing exchange with the several municipalities that are part of the Central KZN Climate Change Compact, as well as the wider global community of climate stakeholders.

Ultimately the TRMP will develop the social and economic capital of the city and change the way the city looks at rivers and streams, by treating water a socio-economic asset. By providing for ecosystem-related job and asset creation for local communities, it will change community lives, urban spaces, and reconnect people and communities with water.

The programme is likely to have a duration of 10 years. 

January 2021
Finalisation of draft business case

February – March 2021
Preparation of the implementation of business plan

February – December 2021
Consultations with government funders, donor institutions, business and property owners for finance and funding

June 2021 – July 2022
Intensive engagement for establishing the required riverine management partnerships

July 2022 – June 2026
Intensive implementation of TRMP as a programme with the 5-year integrated Development Plan cycle

Financing: 
The total project volume is 397 million EUR, of which a maximum of 165 million EUR (17%) will need to be financed externally by donors. The bulk of the finance and funding will come from the municipality, property owners and businesses in eThekwini. The core business model will be direct capital and operating budget expenditure by the municipality from its own sources which is supported by river management partnerships and donor funding. The supporting business model will be the formation of 10-15 river management partnership institutions that will raise management fees from affected property owners for river management services. This will comprise around 60% of the annual operating costs for river management services.

Strategy:

The TRMP will mobilise the required funding using a partnership-based approach and will include the following: 

• Green bonds 
• PPPs 
• Grants or loans from development banks 
• Climate funds 
• Special levies

Key Climate Impacts 

The TRMP will significantly increase the city’s resilience to climate change through ecosystem-based and community-based transformative adaptation of the city’s river and streams.

Economic Outcomes
The TRMP will create a conservative minimum of the following jobs and enterprises:

Jobs - construction for 10 years                              2,215

Jobs - maintenance yearly                                      6,965

Number of potential cooperative enterprises          1,045

Development Outcomes

• Mitigation of flooding and impacts of warmer air and water due to climate change 
• Establishment of hydro-ecological systems, which generate sustained flows of life-supporting and risk-mitigating ecosystem services 
• Benefit for the community from riverine spaces, that are liveable and have strong social and human connection 
• Support to the economy by constructing riverine corridors which improve livelihoods and foster the green economy

One of the key challenges the project faced entailed a shift from a focus on grey infrastructure to ecological infrastructure. Through a thorough cost-benefit analysis, the project was able to demonstrate the considerable benefits of an ecological infrastructure approach, as well as community-based adaptation projects. The CFF-supported studies made a convincing case that investing in river management is a valuable investment for the city. 

The global Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns constrained the project’s participatory approach. Despite the use of innovative virtual formats for participation, the conditions posed a challenge to capacity building efforts and negatively affected the ability of city.

The TRMP has already been operating in various pilot projects for seven years. The upscaling as a multi-year programme will require detailed articulation, contracting, partnering, phasing, sequencing and resourcing. 

There is currently an unclear mandate for South African municipalities to manage riverine corridors. The CFF has thus undertaken a regulatory framework study to chart a clear way forward for financing and institution building to achieve the bigger picture of safe, clean, and climate resilient riverine corridors.

Lessons Learned

Accounting for the complex interplay of flood risk factors in riverine adaptation projects is key for the sustainable management of urban rivers and streams. For example, solid waste loading and alien vegetation encroachment can block culverts and amplify flood damages, while development patterns and densities in the surrounding catchment can further exacerbate these impacts by increasing surface water runoff during rainfall periods. 

For holistic and effective riverine management approaches, it is essential to distinguish between root causes and symptoms of riverine health and risks. Root causes of flooding and degraded rivers usually necessitate long-term management of entire catchment areas. Measures relating to symptoms of degraded riverine corridors or floodplains are usually short term in nature and involve bank stabilisation and reforming, silt removal, flood warning systems, solid waste and invasive alien plant removal and revegetation of riverbanks with indigenous species. Both types of interventions require different investment approaches for different timeframes. 

As rivers are dynamic systems and interact with urban systems, continuous operational maintenance needs to be accompanied by rigorous monitoring and evaluation of riverine and hydrological data. A partnership-based approach to riverine management has the benefit of keeping ears and eyes open to what is happening on the ground.

Transferability

The TRMP provides  a scalable and replicable model for how cities across the world can manage and maintain their waterways while maximising socio-economic benefits. It has already inspired 17 municipalities in the KwaZulu Natal province to replicate the approach.

https://c40cff.org/projects/ethekwini-durban-adaptation

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