DURBAN | After being hit by severe flooding that killed at least 443 people, South Africa began Tuesday to assess the heavy damage caused by a week of bad weather on the east coast.
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Torrential rains and landslides have left a devastated landscape around the port city of Durban, epicenter of the disaster in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN): rutted roads, collapsed bridges, gutted pipes.
President Cyril Ramaposa declared a state of national disaster on Monday, which should allow the release of exceptional resources.
“These are the worst floods we have ever seen,” disaster management minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a news conference.
The emergency services remain mobilized. Helicopters are still flying over the city in search of dozens of people who are still missing.
Since Tuesday morning, the ministers have been visiting schools, health establishments and severely damaged infrastructure. Health Minister Joe Phaahla visited a hospital: ‘The main challenge is water,’ he said as he walked out of the facility where patients use buckets to hold themselves wash and flush the toilet.
Residents have been deprived of drinking water for eight days, nearly 80% of the network has been impacted, according to local authorities. Tanker trucks are trying to transport reserves to the populations, but certain areas remain inaccessible.
The authorities have declared that they have restored electricity almost everywhere but the country is in the grip of new load shedding cuts imposed by the public company Eskom whose aging infrastructure is unable to meet the country’s needs.
A stunned economy
The port of Durban, one of the main maritime terminals in Africa and the keystone of economic activity in the country, was seriously affected. Access has been reduced by extensive damage to the main road linking the port to the rest of the country and the continent.
Many companies have seen their equipment and sites destroyed.
The authorities expect hundreds of millions of euros in damages. A first estimate for the repair of road infrastructure alone amounts to nearly 354 million euros (5.6 billion rand).
The government had already announced last week an emergency fund of 63 million euros (one billion rand) for the region which has already seen massive destruction in July during an unprecedented wave of riots and looting.
Some 10,000 soldiers, including plumbers and electricians, have been deployed to lend a hand, including helicopters and planes to transport goods. “We have sent teams to start installing water cisterns. Others take care of the systems to purify the water,” Defense Minister Thandi Modise told reporters.
In the morgues, the authorities are trying to speed up the identification of victims in the face of the influx of corpses. Funerals are organized but burials represent a logistical challenge in waterlogged ground.
At least 270,000 pupils did not return to class after the Easter long weekend. More than 600 schools were affected, nearly 4,000 houses destroyed. Some 40,000 people had to leave their homes. With the return of the sun, victims are trying as best they can to dry clothes and mattresses.
Some are already worried about possible embezzlement of aid money, in a country with a long history of corruption: “There must be absolute transparency and full disclosure of how these funds are distributed in order to ensure that they reach the communities for which they are intended,” warned Karam Singh, of the NGO Corruption Watch.
South Africa, which is facing an unprecedented natural disaster, is generally spared the bad weather that regularly hits its neighbors such as Mozambique or Madagascar.