TRL 3705
ASSIGNMENT 6
SECOND SEMESTER
2022
,Question 1
Discuss the effects associated/potential impacts of weather and climate
factors/change along different time scales on railway operators.
In KwaZulu-Natal, flooding will have long-term financial impacts on businesses that
were recovering from both the July unrest, covid-19 pandemic and it will leave a
longer-term socio-economic impact due to the climate change effects. These floods
damaged the key infrastructure such as the roads, bridges, and ports
According to Andrew Bahlmann, chief executive of corporate advisory firm Deal
Leaders International, at least 60 people were dead and hundreds of millions of rand
in infrastructure damage were caused disrupting the rail, road and shipping
infrastructure mostly, in response to the devastating floods.
The previous unrest had left a R50 billion economic damage with Bahlmann saying
the business disruption was salt rubbed into an open wound. In the short term,
business performance was severely impacted due to the geographic risk
concentration.
In South Africa, this highlighted KZN’s pivotal supply chain and logistics role with the
closure of container terminals at the Port of Durban demonstrated the crisis with the
impact spreading far wider than KZN within the country and across other SADC
countries due to a reliant of port facilities on South Africa.
The floods are forced business owners to view risk mitigation strategies such as
bringing in larger partners to support during tough catastrophic times, product, and
market diversification on top of the power crisis, economic pressure, and global
uncertainty.
The climate change is increasing the costs of insurance and recovery due to the more
frequent and severe floods, as well as other risks such as fires.
,Whether people should be allowed to build back in such areas prone for a repeat of
floods in future is question that is difficult to answer. At the climate summit, COP27,
African countries are urging the rich countries to pay up for damage caused by climate
change. Developed countries must bear financial responsibility for environmental
damage caused by the climate change in poorer and developing nations and help with
the transition from coal-fired to renewable energy sources as Africa is contributing
about 4% to the greenhouse gas emissions as reported in the Business
Times of November 13, 2022.
The taxpayers in poorer and developing countries are carrying a huge burden of
paying for rescue and relief costs.
Transnet as the state-owned logistics company suspended operations across the
Durban Terminals. Around the Port, roads access has been damaged, container
yards, truck depots and trucks have been flooded and damaged with the catastrophic
disaster.
Because of environmental damage caused by the adverse weather, and vessels on
berth are on standby and both rail and shipping have been suspended.
Along the N3 highway, long queues of trucks were formed with the Marian hill plaza
with a backlog of 10km all the way to Hammarsdale.
KZN authorities requested all freight movements (trucks) towards the Port of Durban
be suspended or withheld until the situation at the Port has improved.
Rail infrastructures were not also spared, as damage extensively affected the rail
tracks and signalling equipment making it difficult to communicate.
No foreseeable shortages in foodstuffs and fuel realized as reported by the Road
Freight Association chief executive Gavin Kelly on logistics operations as a result of
the negative impact.
, The Association has advised its members to delay any departures towards Durban
and find depots for safe parking areas along the way and there will be delivery
disruptions for imported goods as said by Kelly.
This also extended to the railway transport operations and members have been
requested to assist one another to get any vehicles off the road and secure holding
areas until the logistics chain has been restored.
The infrastructure, businesses and homes damage will have a devastating impact on
the manufacturing, travel and tourism, agriculture, and many other sectors of the
economy and neighbouring countries.
The flooding had a detrimental impact on the greater South African economy as
reported by Anchor Capital investment analyst, Casey Delport although it started on
the economic impact of the KZN provincial economy that is already severe.
The South African harbour is a key trade route as well as its landlocked neighbours
such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, and consequently, that further
constrained the already tight supply chains, driving up inflation and further constraining
South Africa’s already lacklustre economic growth prospects, it was further noted.
Evaluate the effects associated/potential impacts of weather and climate
factors/change along different time scales on railway operators.
The United Nations body on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been
assessing global warming since 1990, and written that most of the build-up of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere has come from the United States and Western Europe, and
poorer countries are likely to pay the biggest price closer to the equator.
Mostly in Africa and the “crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with
small island nations will experience the risk of drought disrupted water supplies and
swelling of oceans from melting ice sheets because of global warming.
