Position Paper of South Africa

Committee : United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development

Topic : Weather Modification Technology: Between Effective and Defective
Manipulation

“The challenges that we face are real, but they are not insurmountable. They can be solved,
and we are going to solve them.” - Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa

The weather has always been an interesting and substantial subject matter in the lives of
people. Humans survive and thrive because of weather, but at times the weather can bring
disadvantageous properties towards people and so it is without surprise that people have tried in many
ways to modify the weather, whether to diminish the disadvantageous properties or to accelerate the
appearance of advantageous properties. Like all other things, the attempt to modify the weather has
brought positive and negative results, and as history has shown weather modification technology has
been used in the past for malicious purposes.

South Africa positively views weather modification technology because South Africa
acknowledges that there are beneficial impacts from the practice of weather modification technology.
South Africa believes that the practice of weather modification should be justifiable as long as it is
being used in a beneficial manner that does not cause any harm to any party. South Africa is actually
no stranger to weather modification technology. In December 1971 two long-term weather
modification projects were carried out. In today’s society, South Africa actually uses weather
modification technology in the form of “cloud seeding”, as a pre-emptive solution to combat drought.
Due to South Africa’s geographical position, South Africa receives less than the average rainfall that
causes droughts in some regions and annual water crisis, and so that negatively impact the lives of
people living in South Africa, which is why the application of “cloud seeding” technology is one of
the methods being used by the Ministry of Water and Sanitation in South Africa in an effort to combat
the water crisis.1 South Africa has included the topic of weather modification into its legislation, as it
was explicitly stated in the Water Amendment Act of 1975. South Africa’s Department of Water and
Sanitation in cooperation with the Department of Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries holds control
over weather modification technology in South Africa. Certain provisions in the Water Amendment
Act of 1975 set up a license and permit system that excludes certain activities in correlation with
weather modification, from which the state has full power to carry out any operation to effect any
modification of precipitation. Regarding exemptions, The Minister of Water Affairs can grant any
person a written exemption with provisions from the Water Amendment Act of 1975 that deals with
weather modification technology. The minister may withdraw any exemption or amend at any time
exemptions that have been previously granted. A criminal penalty is to be prescribed as an indirect
or subsidiary sanction should basic administration fail.2
1

South Africa recognizes that weather modification technology could be used for ill-natured
purposes therefore in accordance with that South Africa would like to propose these solutions that
would still allow innovation and positive implementation of weather modification technology to

1
BusinessTechSA. Government will use ‘fog harvesting’ and ‘cloud seeding’ to fight South Africa’s water crisis.
Businesstech.co.za. Published 2017. Accessed December 2, 2020. https://businesstech.co.za/news/technology/359556/government-
will-use-fog-harvesting-and-cloud-seeding-to-fight-south-africas-water-crisis/
continue while at the same time prevents weather modification technology from being carried out in
a hostile manner:
1. Recommends further implementation of The Environmental Modification Convention as
the main framework to prevent the use of weather modification techniques to induce long-
lasting and severe effects that are considered damaging.
2. Suggests the creation and implementation of the Safety Net policy which first and foremost
would be a non-binding legislation for which states must prepare safety measures before
conducting any act of weather modification, regardless the act was experimental or for serious
reasons. The form of safety measures would be under the jurisdiction of each state but it is
highly recommended that each state designs the safety measures by predicting the worst-case
scenario of the execution of weather modification. Therefore if the worst results were to
happen it would not cause too many negative impacts, whether towards the environment or
the people, because there would be protocols and infrastructures2 in place that prepared for
the worst outcome.
3. Endorses the cooperation among states and organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) in terms of assessing the drivers of “cloud seeding”, its impact
and future risks as well as how to reduce those risks. Due to the results of “cloud seeding” not
being truly determinate, cooperation between IPCC as an attempt to decrease existing risks
would function as a support system to the Safety Net policy.
4. Advocates the utilization of the mesoscale models in regards to better understand the physical
and dynamics of “cloud seeding” in the research and operation of weather modification
technology.

2
Rabie M, Loubser M. Legal aspects of weather modification. The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa.
1990;23(2):177-218. Accessed December 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23248758