Water and Climate Change in Africa Challenges and Community Initiatives in Durban, Maputo and Nairobi Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research Series

In the coming decades, countries around the world will face increasingly severe challenges related to global climate change. While the details vary from country to country, the impacts will be especially grave for marginalized people, whose access to food, potable water, and safe shelter may be threatened due to fluctuations in rainfall and temperature, and to extreme weather events. Because weather extremes are the main way that climate change manifests itself, water governance is a crucial aspect of climate change resilience.

Following an overview of the ways climate change is affecting three cities in Africa, Water and Climate Change in Africa: Challenges and Community Initiatives in Durban, Maputo and Nairobi discusses the equity and climate justice implications, and then gives examples of ways in which a range of local community organizations are extending their current activities to address these challenges through innovative new programs and initiatives at the grassroots. This approach has implications for communities worldwide; it is a process of building on existing organizations? aptitudes and strengths in the light of local knowledge of climate challenges, and creating partnerships to build equity-enhancing new methods of protecting people?s subsistence.

This book should be of interest to climate change scholars, activists and policy-makers, as well as development studies researchers and practitioners.

1. Introduction: The Importance of Community-based Organizations for Equitable Water Governance in times of Climate Change 2. Economic, Ecological and Climate Justice - Literacy and Politics3. Climate, Gender and Class Justice in Africa4. Kilimanjaro Initiative: Working with Youth in Nairobi5. Climate change in South Durban, South Africa6. Bringing Together Community and Academic Knowledge: The Eduardo Mondlane University Faculty of Education Environmental Education Club7. Community River Restoration in South Africa 8. Gender and Climate Change in Mozambique9. Can You Educate Hungry People?10. A Hot Climate for Civil Society Engagement with Climate Change and Water in eThekwini (Durban)11. Planning and Climate Change in Nairobi12. Climate Vulnerability and Resilience in Local Communities13. Durban, Climate Change, and Socio-political Transformation14. Conclusion: Developing Community-based Responses to Climate Change

Patricia E. Perkins is a Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Canada.