Johannesburg – The deadly rains befell KwaZulu-Natal in April, destroying lives and livelihoods.
Almost eight months later, parts of KZN are still on the road to recovery from the horrific floods that claimed over 400 lives, left over 40 000 people displaced and destroyed over 12 000 homes including other infrastructure such as roads, health centres, schools, in April 2022.
The floods experienced in the province, caused untold damage and brought the provincial economic hub of Durban to a near standstill, causing more damage than what the city and provincial authorities had capacity and resources to deal with.
The floods also hit the province as it was beginning to recover from the 2021 July Unrest that heavily impacted many parts of the province.
Many jobs were lost again and manufacturing among other things, was brought to a standstill, serving a huge blow to the province’s economy.
Due to the severity of the floods President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster.
This allowed efforts to provide basic needs such as food, water, shelter and clothing to those who were hardest hit.
“Cabinet therefore met in a special session last night and decided to declare a national state of disaster. The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will gazette the declaration.This is to ensure an effective response across all spheres of government to the extreme weather events that have occurred in several parts of the country.”
“The primary responsibility to co-ordinate and manage the disaster is assigned to the national sphere of government, working closely together with provincial governments and municipalities.” said Ramaphosa in his speech declaring a national state of disaster in the wake of KZN floods.
The efforts of the provincial government and disaster management teams included finding ways to rebuild the parts of the province that were affected.
Families were placed in community halls for months while they awaited temporary residential units (TRUs).
Although some families have been placed in stable accommodation, thousands remain displaced and are awaiting accommodation.
The KZN government is under pressure trying to recover from the impact of the floods as it attempts to fix their budget to provide housing and repair infrastructure.
They also face developments which come as a result of the floods such as a water crisis caused by sewage leaks and spillages around Durban.
Multiple pharmacists in the city revealed to Independent, that over the past four months there had been a sharp increase in demand for medication for diseases linked to poor water, such as diarrhoea and gastro-enteritis.
Spokesperson for Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, Msawakhe Mayisela said: “The city said the April floods were the root cause of its infrastructural woes.”
“It is public knowledge that eThekwini Municipality’s infrastructure was severely affected by the floods. This challenge was compounded by unavailability of funds to repair and restore the infrastructure speedily,” Mayisela said.
Mayisela said funding of R184 million was only received in September for the rehabilitation of roads and water and sanitation infrastructure.
R110m of this funding was allocated for water and sanitation and R70m has been allocated for road repairs.
While addressing the media in Durban on Tuesday, December 13, KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube shared her hopes to close all mass care centres within seven days and relocate all flood victims to new accommodation before Christmas.
More than 1 000 families were still in mass care centres and were waiting to be allocated to new accommodation.
“The government had been hard at work to assist communities to recover from the tragic events of the April and May 2022 floods.
“In the next seven days there will be no flood victim living in a mass care centre in KZN. As the government, we have mobilised all available resources and are undertaking every effort to ensure that as we rebuild and rehouse flood victims, no one is left behind,” Dube-Ncube said.
Despite the long journey ahead to rebuild the province, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN) acting CEO Nhlanhla Khumalo said KZN beaches were safe and ready to welcome visitors to the ocean and beach activities across the 600km KZN coastline.
IOL