Published on : 15/04/2022 – 22:11
The death toll is nearing 400 in KwaZulu-Natal province. 395 people lost their lives in the floods earlier this week, mainly in the municipality of Durban. Rainfall records have been recorded and President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared these events to the cyclones that usually hit neighboring Mozambique. Durban has already experienced several deadly floods like in April 2019 with 85 dead. Is the city sufficiently prepared to face these bad weather and climate change?
With our special correspondent in Durban, Romain Chanson
Durban didn’t wake up to find it was vulnerable to the weather. The municipality has already implemented strategies and it adheres to the C40 network of cities that are committed to combating climate change. And yet, the results are not there yet, regrets Roland Postma, coordinator of the association of young South African urban planners.
« What the city is doing is fighting a fire with a wall. The fire is climate change and heavy rainfall. They failed to take action even though they were pioneers in becoming aware of their status as cities and of urban planning tools to limit the effects of climate change. In short: lots of talk and little action. »
► To read and listen: Floods in South Africa: in Durban, in shock, residents testify
Seeing the images of the floods, Roland can point out a few priorities to prevent this from happening once more: ending the concrete. ” Durban suffers cruelly from the lack of biodiversity. It does not use enough natural solutions or eco-responsible infrastructure to build our roads, our neighborhoods, how do we trap torrential waters? Since here we only have hard infrastructure, the torrential rains have no place to flow and it has a snowball effect. »
While the floods might take a political turn, Mxolisi Kaunda, the mayor of Durban, defends himself and insists that the heart of the problem is not infrastructure, but climate change.
This type of event is ever more intense, ever more frequent and linked to climate change. We are increasingly able to show that these changes can be linked to human activity, particularly in Africa.
Benjamin Sultan, IRD climatologist
Water shortage
Infrastructure was badly damaged: 4,000 houses were destroyed. Mudslides, landslides and floods have torn out many pipes. On Friday once more, water was lacking in Durban. Wentworth Hospital has been without running water for 24 hours. For this nurse who prefers to remain anonymous and for her patients, it is an eternity. “ It was awful the last few days, very exhausting. We can’t really help them. Without water, you can’t wash the toilet. We can’t even make their daily life more pleasant, like offering them the cup of tea they would like to have. »
This nurse contacted the Gift Of The Givers foundation, which specializes in disaster relief. A truck arrives loaded with bottles of mineral water. The hospital is just one stop on a busy delivery day for Stanley Sabelo. ” Everyone is looking for water, no one has it, that’s why we go everywhere to distribute it. We receive more than 3,000 calls a day from people asking for water. “Stanley Sabelo and his truck can’t go everywhere, some neighborhoods have become too dangerous. ” Some places are difficult to access because of looting. They called a truck back the other day. People are hungry. »
In some municipalities, the infrastructure has been completely destroyed and will not be repaired for months, warns the municipality of Durban, which promises to acquire new tank trucks.
► Read also : South Africa: Heavy rains cause deadly flooding in KwaZulu-Natal
