The SA Weather Service issued its highest flood alert at the weekend as torrential rains pounded parts of KwaZulu-Natal and threatened to aggravate extensive infrastructure damage caused by the province’s worst flooding in a generation in April.
A red level 10 warning indicates disruptive rain leading to damage to roads, bridges, property, infrastructure and danger to life due to fast-flowing streams. Mudslides and displacement of communities can be expected, and the country’s disaster management rescue teams are on stand-by in the province, parts of which are prone to snowfall.
No fatalities are officially known in the weekend flooding that caused devastation in key coastal areas and stretched as far north as Zululand, and risked disrupting operations at the Port of Durban, which handles 60% of SA shipments.
But KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Sipho Hlomuka gave a gloomy prognosis on Sunday.
“A worrying picture is emerging. This time the coastal and northeastern parts of the province are badly affected. Some of the areas are inaccessible and are islands at this stage,” he said.
A month before the worst downpours in three decades battered KwaZulu-Natal, killed more than 440 people, destroyed roads and bridges and disrupted operations at the Port of Durban, which also handles goods and commodities to and from nations in the region as far north as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The floods in April hit the province’s fragile economic prospects after the unrest in July 2021 in which thousands run amok, looting and burning commercial buildings. It came at a time when the SA economy was under pressure from pandemic-induced lockdown restrictions. KwaZulu-Natal is the second-biggest contributor to SA’s R6.7-trillion GDP.
Proactive monitoring
“The city has put its disaster management teams on high alert. Sixteen disaster management co-ordinators have all been placed on standby in order to conduct proactive monitoring of high-risk areas and respond where required,” eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kuanda said. “Human settlement teams have been put on alert to monitor the settlements located along flood-prone areas in order to monitor the need for evacuation.”
Homes and roads have been washed away, and there has been extensive power and cellphone tower outages, with mudslides and fallen trees blocking roads. Much of the emergency recovery work done in the wake of the April floods was washed away, though this time the main canals were able to cope with the torrents of water washing through the South Durban Basin industrial area.
Community security and emergency channels were inundated with calls for help and reports of flooded roads and sinkholes. The biggest officially known emergency during the night was the evacuation of 190 elderly residents at Tongaat, north of Durban.
The vulnerable Umdloti coastal enclave north of Durban was hard hit. Rescue teams plucked 14 residents stuck in a building in danger of collapse to safety late on Sunday. The picturesque holiday beachfront village was reduced to a muddy wasteland with deep fissures cut into the sandy terrain through the structures that escaped or withstood the raging water.
Water utility Umgeni Water announced that it started releasing water from Hazelmere Dam north of Durban and cautioned residents that the river below will remain swollen for two to three days.
The rain rapidly pushed the dam level up to 70%, which posed a risk to construction work on dam wall extensions. The release of water started on Sunday morning to bring the level back to the ideal of 53% and will be progressively increased in accordance with the capability of the river.
University of Kwazulu-Natal climate change expert Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudi says the recurring storms in the province underscores the importance of acknowledging the reality of climate change.
“The whole of SA needs to understand that climate change is real and urgent. There is urgent need for adaptable strategies both from the government and private sector and communities to anticipate, prepare and respond in a more structured manner to situations like the ones we are experiencing in this province.
“The government must create an enabling environment and increase investment and municipalities must provide significant capital into those living in vulnerable areas. Business must invest in sustainable and more resilient infrastructure and innovation in new ideas that is resilient for climate change,” he added.
The cost of April’s flood damage to public infrastructure is officially estimated at R25bn of losses, mainly of roads, rail and bridges, housing, water, sanitation, electricity, agriculture and manufacturing. About 85,280 people were affected and nearly 7,000 are homeless. A total of 27,069 households were affected, while 8,584 houses were completely and 13,536 partially destroyed.
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