Today is World Population Day, and this year’s theme is: “A world of 8 billion: Towards a resilient future for all - Harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices for all"
Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning said that on World Population Day we should also reflect on how population dynamics impact on our relationship with our natural environment.
“We are seeing a growth in population in the Western Cape of more than 100 000 people each year. Population dynamics, whether it is simply numbers of people, or if it is the way in which they move into or out of a region, has profound implications for our natural environment as well as service delivery to our people,” Bredell said.
Bredell said the work that CapeNature does to protect the natural environment for future generations is crucial in this regard: “CapeNature actively manages 1.04million hectares of land for conservation and the protection of biodiversity in the Western Cape. In the past year, CapeNature added 33 352 hectares of land for conservation. Of this, 12 577 hectares are formally classified as protected areas.”
Current population growth in Province
The South African population is estimated at 60,8 million. According to the latest information from Statistics South Africa, (MYPE, 2021), the Western Cape is the third most populated province accounting for 11,9% of the national population which is up from 9.7% in 1996. The City of Cape Town has seen the largest share of the Provincial population, with approximately 4,75 million people (65.8%) living in the Metro.
Helena Jacobs, the Director for Development Planning Intelligence Management and Research says: “From our unpublished research we can see that the major pull factors for migration into the Province is employment, better living conditions, family and household, education and retirement.”
Migration trends on the ground ranges from:
- Semigration, where people are seeking a better work-from-home lifestyle and moving to smaller towns within their provinces.
- Seasonal workers, where people migrate to the Western Cape in search of seasonal work on farms during harvest periods.
- Land Invasions, taking place largely on municipal/government land that is not always suitable for housing developments. These include nature reserves and areas prone to flooding.
- Informal settlements: A growing number of people in the Western Cape, unable to afford formal housing opportunities and for whom adequate public sector alternatives do not exist, live in informal settlements and informal housing arrangements. (Source: Western Cape Informal Settlement Strategic Framework, 2016)
“All of the above factors puts pressure on municipalities and government as a whole to provide services, infrastructure and housing to keep up with the continued rapid urbanisation and population growth which is why we as the Western Cape Government continue to do research to better understand these trends,” says Jacobs.
Karen Shippey, Chief Director for Sustainability at Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning: “Rapid population growth also puts pressure on our environment. We know that during the COVID Lockdown many people lost their employment and shelter, and this put people struggling with poverty in even more vulnerable positions. Many people resorted to unlawful occupation of sites across the province which are not suitable for human settlement including within flood zones and under power lines. Even Driftsands Nature Reserve on the Cape Flats was directly impacted by this type of unlawful occupation which led to the natural ecosystem inside the reserve being transformed, sadly, to the point where it has to be considered for de-proclamation.”
The 2018 State of Environment Report for Western Cape makes reference to the need for sustainable approaches to development and maintenance of human settlements. “This approach is critical for the health and wellbeing of communities and natural systems. Projected population growth, paired with the housing and basic service delivery requirements for settlements, are increasing pollution and waste, transforming productive land and disrupting nature’s ability to provide critical goods and services such as flood retention, water security and insect-based pollination. This is why we need to learn to meet our needs in ways that use less resources. deleteriously affecting ecologically sensitive areas and biodiversity,” added Shippey.
ENDS
Contact:
Wouter Kriel
Spokesperson for Minister Anton Bredell
Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
079 694 3085