The City of Johannesburg says it has completed a project to clean up its act, which included restoring the Jukskei river catchment, urban cleanup, planting trees and installing a continuous hydrological monitoring network.

The aim was to integrate nature-based solutions to mitigate urban heat, reduce flood risks, support local livelihoods and protect biodiversity. The project focused on the inner city, Alexandra, Soweto and the Jukskei river catchment.

The project is part of the Scaling Urban Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SUNCASA) initiative.

SUNCASA aims to address climate-related flood risks and environmental degradation to enhance the climate resilience of three sub-Saharan African cities, namely Johannesburg; Dire Dawa, in Ethiopia; and Kigali, in Rwanda.

As part of the ecosystem restoration efforts in Johannesburg, 489 ha along the Jukskei river catchment were restored through the clearing of invasive alien plant species and reintroduction of indigenous vegetation.

The urban forestry and cleanup parts of the project saw the city and its partners plant 47 600 trees and remove 664 tonnes of solid waste from the Jukskei river waterway.

Additionally, the project also focused on developing infrastructure and policy, and installed a continuous hydrological monitoring network for flood early-warning systems, and the formulation of two long-term strategies to institutionalise urban nature-based solutions.

The project also provided jobs for 1 500 people throughout its duration and trained 200 full-time workers to build capacity.

The R334.38-million project was funded by Canadian international agency Global Affairs Canada through its Partnering for Climate Programme. Further, the project was managed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Water Research Institute (WRI).

“Climate, biodiversity, and social risks have been integrated around nature-based solutions in the city and carried forward. Local communities and voices have been driving this forward with tangible action on the ground,” says IISD Nature for Resilience director Alec Crawford.

“The programme has demonstrated the value of combining international expertise with local knowledge. Let us see this as a transition from a funded programme to sustained institutional action,” says City of Johannesburg water management and biodiversity director Daniel Masemola.

“Without the grant funding, the scale of delivery achieved, particularly the tree planting, land restoration, and waste removal would have required more than two financial years to achieve. As custodians of Johannesburg's green infrastructure, this project aligns intrinsically with our core mandate,” says Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo MD Thanduxolo Mendrew.