Director of the Aid organisation Gift of the Givers, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, says from what he sees in KwaZulu-Natal, there hasn’t been a massive demand for rescues amid renewed flooding in the province following more heavy rains.
The rains have caused substantial damage in parts of eThekwini, including uMdloti.
The organisation has been helping out in the province since the devastating floods last month, which left more than 440 people dead, and scores homeless.
Sooliman says they’re moving people to higher ground, and has encouraged those in affected areas to heed the call to be moved.
“People won’t want to move away from there because their life’s possessions are in those informal settlements. One of the problems is that people are not used to the water levels rising this high, yes we had the floods of 2019, and we have storms in other parts of the year, but we’ve never had anything to the extent of what we had on the 11th of April this year. So, people are not expecting that kind of water rising and now when you tell them again the water is going to rise, they’re not going to move to higher ground.”
KZN Floods | Gift of the Givers’ Dr Imtiaz Sooliman on the mobilization of aid for the affected:
Meanwhile, climate change expert professor, Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi says while the impact of heavy rains that led to flooding overnight in KwaZulu-Natal, is not at the scale of last month’s devastating floods that left hundreds dead, and scores homeless, there’s still concern that a lot of people remain vulnerable, as a result of the situation.
He says that climate change worsened the effect of the event.
“The frequency and intensity of weather extremes is likely to increase due to climate change, and of course, we’re seeing these floods that are happening again this weekend, and whilst the impact has not been at the scale of what we saw, the risk profile is what has really escalated this situation. Hence the level 10 warning issued by the South African Weather Service.”
Government activates emergency response systems as KZN hit by more severe flooding:
