The KwaZulu-Natal government says it is in talk with national government to declare the province a disaster area following damaging storms since December. According to the department, the cost of damage by the recent flooding incidents is estimated at billions of rands. More than 50 people have lost their lives since and hundreds of people were left homeless. The hardest hit areas include Ladysmith, Dundee and Durban.
Residents of oThongathi are once again without water due to infrastructure damage caused by the flash floods at the weekend. The town was still recovering from the 2022 April floods, which left over 40 000 residents without water for months. Residents are worried that the weekends storm will further exacerbate the situation.
“The challenges that the municipality will face will be even more severe than they were facing before. So, the issue of water being resolved now I can’t see it being done as in the short term this will be a very long time to wait,” says resident Jeeva Pillay.
“It is going to be worse, nothing has been communicated to us in terms of what is happening. There are no water tankers and we are forced to buy water every day. It is so frustrating because even our kids are going to school, we are asking ourselves how we are going to manage,” says another resident Portia Mncwabe.
Search and rescue teams have been working tirelessly to find people reported missing. With the help of community members, two more bodies were recovered in oThongathi. This bringing the death toll in the Metro to eight.
“We even organised a team because Sibonelo was our bru. Our mates they came. Yesterday we went to the bush. Luckily two paras saw us, and they ask us: hey, what are you searching for. And we told them: hey, we’re searching for our bru. an hour later, it was 5 o’clock, I think, maybe something to 5, they came by our house, and they tell us they think they found a body lying there. We went to the bush ourselves, no rescue team, nothing. We had to search for Sibonelo ourselves because he was our guy,” says a friend Khethelo Mthethwa.
The Department of Co-operative Governance says it is in talks with the national government for the province to be declared a disaster area.
“We can now confirm that the damages we have suffered due to the inclement weather in KZN is in excess of billions. There are about 50 schools that were damaged. There is also road infrastructure, electricity lines, have also been damaged, people’s houses. Consultation with the office of the premier, the National Minister for CoGTA in terms of declaring the province as the disaster area,” says CoGTA spokesperson Sboniso Mngadi.
Disaster management teams are on high alert in the province after the South African Weather Services issued a warning for more severe rains this week.
Source: eNCA
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