{"id":47809,"date":"2026-10-13T09:51:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=47809"},"modified":"2026-10-13T09:51:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:51:44","slug":"sa-weather-service-urges-immediate-action-ahead-of-forecasted-el-nino-drought","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-weather-service-urges-immediate-action-ahead-of-forecasted-el-nino-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Weather Service urges immediate action ahead of forecasted El Ni\u00f1o drought \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa (SA) has been urged to take immediate action to protect its water resources following forecasts of warmer temperatures and reduced rainfall over the upcoming summer months.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The SA Weather Service predicts above-normal temperatures and below-normal rainfall across most of the country between October and December 2026. Durban University of Technology water expert Professor Sheena Kumari Pillai warned that an incoming El Ni\u00f1o climate pattern will bring a hotter, drier season, putting significant pressure on key rivers and supply dams, particularly in summer-rainfall regions like KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Water experts and municipal authorities are calling on residents and businesses to intensify water conservation efforts to safeguard limited supplies ahead of the peak summer period.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23424,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-47809","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA faces severe water and crop risks as El Ni\u00f1o threatens hotter summer","published_date":"2026-10-13 09:51:13","news_description":"SA faces severe water and crop risks as El Ni\u00f1o threatens hotter summer","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47810,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47809\/revisions\/47810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}