DURBAN - PUTTING in place strategies, which will come with high costs, and overcoming the lack of political will to implement early warning systems are some of the solutions to deal with the devastating impact of climate change.
This is the warning experts gave as KwaZulu-Natal mops up and rebuilds after floods led to the loss of hundreds of lives, left tens of thousands displaced and caused the destruction of homes and critical infrastructure.
Structural intervention, including dikes or levees, are being suggested, alongside a system that can alert communities to the threat of floods and an evacuation plan.
An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last week said critical action needed to be taken over the next few years and pathways developed for all countries to shift towards sustainable development.
It is this sustainable development that needs to be addressed starting with the “low-hanging fruit” according to Professor Dewald van Niekerk, director of African Centre for Disaster Studies at the North-West University.
“We have to start with what needs serious attention and what we have done wrong in the past. This will require a lot of investment, but the major issue that needs fixing is where people settle, how they settle and how this infrastructure is built. It is complex and expensive but we can do this. It is going to cost a lot of money.”
Van Niekerk said there was a need to understand the risk going into the future.
Climate expert Dr Tafadzwana Mabhudi, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said a world-class flood forecasting early warning system, as used in South Asian and South East Asian countries, was needed.
“Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have these systems. We do have an existing early warning system in place, but the current scope and design is focused more on the coastline.
“We need to further develop and upgrade capacity and disaggregate it to the level of being community-based.”
Mabhudi said KZN had the highest flood-risk assessment of all the provinces and communities must be partners in any system that alerts but also aids in evacuation, adding that such systems were expensive.
“There must be loud hailers located in certain communities followed by effective response capability so when a message is disseminated, people receive it and know how to respond, if to evacuate and to where.”
He said municipalities should protect land that is unsuitable for people to live on.
Environmental activist and director of groundWork Bobby Peek said the eThekwini Municipality should go to institutions globally and demand climate finance to rebuild the city as a result of the damage related to climate change caused by the northern hemisphere’s use of fossil fuels.
“Durban has fairly good infrastructure but it has been poorly maintained and was allowed to disintegrate. The city should not go on the defensive but should use this as a wake-up call as sadly this is our future. A third of our annual rainfall fell in one day.”
Peek said good services like homes, roads and health facilities that did not wash away would protect people from disasters brought on by climate change.
Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the April rains had been unprecedented but were probably what could be expected with climate change.
“The city is in the process of redrawing all flood-line planning documents to take into account the impacts of climate change.
“There is also policy in place to control stormwater run-off associated with the hardening of catchment surfaces from development. It is imperative that we restore as much of the natural ecosystems in catchments, like wetlands and streams, as that helps to buffer us from the worst impacts of climate change,” Mayisela said.
With regards to people living on flood plains, Mayisela said the city’s Human Settlements Unit continually tried to ensure that people were moved to transit camps so that they could be moved to their new homes once construction was completed.
“Our Land Invasion Unit has also been working hard to ensure that structures that are built illegally are removed. Despite efforts, people continue to build illegally in areas that are not meant for settling.”
Mayisela said there was a Disaster Management Plan and a Forecast Early Warning System in place.
“The city has always had a plan in place as we are guided by and comply with national legislation regarding institutional arrangements.”
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