The images are very impressive, throughout the region of Kwazulu Natal, in the south-east of South Africa, around the large city of Durban, 3.5 million inhabitants: houses have been engulfed in landslides ground, hundreds of overturned containers block roads, bridges are totally destroyed. The mud invaded everything. More than 250 schools were damaged and closed. Port activity is completely at a standstill. Electricity is cut in many neighborhoods.
President @CyrilRamaphosa visits flood-stricken parts of KwaZulu-Natal to offer support to affected communities and assess the response of government and civil society to this critical situation. #KZNFloods pic.twitter.com/ZEssD4Pjaw
— Presidency | South Africa (@PresidencyZA) April 13, 2022
Above all, the human toll is very heavy: 306 dead according to the last count, Thursday April 14, but dozens of people are still missing, in particular in the disadvantaged neighborhoods, the slums surrounding Durban. Morgues are overwhelmed. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa went there on Wednesday evening. And he’s talking about a “disaster” : “We are facing a calamity of enormous proportions, said Ramaphosa. But the government has moved up a gear, everyone is mobilized, we will bring as much help and assistance as possible to the people”. That said, there is a lot of skepticism among the 60 million South Africans.
The link with global warming is very probable. 450 mm of water fell in 48 hours. This is absolutely unprecedented in the region. It is a level similar to that triggered by cyclones. The previous floods date from 2019 but the toll was much lighter. Although there are obviously storms in southern Africa, this region of South Africa is normally spared.
Several South African climatologists point out that severe weather phenomena have always been part of the landscape. On the other hand, for them, the intensity of these floods is inseparable from the aggravation of climate change. Bruce Hewitson, head of the South African Climate Research Institute, is convinced that the frequency and intensity of these phenomena will increase in the country. Especially, it is established, that in southern Africa, temperatures are increasing twice as fast as the global average. So expect, he says, both more flooding and more dry spells.
A very disturbing report was published last fall. Entitled “This is what life in South Africa will look like in the 21st century”, it predicted a major impact on agriculture or the supply of drinking water.
South Africa’s infrastructure is not prepared for this situation. And this is also what explains the very heavy toll of these floods. The houses are built without foundations, on flood-prone or unserviced land. The materials used to build the roads are not strong enough. The water supply systems are very insufficient. In the large slum of “Mega City”, located precisely in the suburbs of Durban, many residents denounce the inaction of the public authorities after the first floods of 2019. Hence the skepticism of the population. Political controversy is inevitable.