“South Africa experiences droughts on a regular basis, often associated with significant negative impacts on
society and the economy. Droughts can be forecast, and South African climate scientists have been developing
computer-generated models to forecast El Niño-induced droughts. Even so, there is a tendency to implement remedial interventions when droughts occur, rather
than implementing proactive and preventative strategies. Being reactive seems to be a defining feature
of South African water-resource management. This has also been the case with the 2015/2016 drought. What
is more, the forecasting capability of South Africa seems to be under strain as more and more weather monitoring stations and river gauges are stolen or vandalised and not replaced. This makes it difficult
to gather data for extreme weather event forecasting. One way of increasing this capability is through collaboration with citizens to build a citizen-science
data repository. This can enhance scientists’ and the government’s capacity to forecast droughts.”
