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Climate Action on Flooding: The Efficacy of Durban’s Climate Change Action, South Africa

by Michelle Simon 02 Jul 2025
Climate Action on Flooding: The Efficacy of Durban’s Climate Change Action, South Africa
Climate change is gripping and crippling the city of Durban, with extreme weather patterns resulting in tornadoes, heavy rainfall and flooding. The impacts of which are far-reaching and extensive resulting in the loss of lives, leaving hundreds destitute, and damaging service infrastructure, roads, houses and educational facilities.  
 
In the early hours of Wednesday, 26th February 2025, floodwaters hit the local township of Lamontville, located in South Durban. In a media release on the 26th February 2025 KZN Cogta Media Statement, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (KZN COGTA) stated that the KZN COGTA “regrets to announce the recovery of five bodies following severe flooding in Lamontville, eThekwini. Disaster Management teams have recovered the remains of two adult males and three children who were tragically swept away into a canal during the early hours of this morning.” 
 
Patronela lives on the banks of the uMlazi River, and was affected by the floods as the banks of the river alongside her container structure home washed away. 
 
“The flood came at ten to twelve at night. It was Tuesday,” states Patronela. Patronela continued to relate the events of the night, “I woke up and people were running away. Someone was knocking here saying ‘wake up, the rain is here!’ I never saw the start of the rain, but the rain was coming here, straight inside from the road. Some of the people here lost their lives. The council took some people and moved them to stay in town.” 
 
“Some of us we stay here but it’s dangerous now, I can’t trust anything because when the rain starts the rivers comes from two sides, two rivers, one river is on the left and one river is on the right,” states Patronela. 
 
Plate 1: showing the uMlazi River Canal

Photo: Michelle Simon 
 
Plate 2: showing the uMlazi River (uMlaas) Canal
Photo: Michelle Simon  
 
Plate 3: Stream flowing from a northern to southern direction
Photo: Michelle Simon 
 
“It’s very hard to stay here!” says Patronela.

“And the soil is moving here, when the water is coming it moves the soil and the houses wash away. It’s very very hard, serious! I’ve lived here from 2021. I was also affected by the 2022 floods,” expresses Patronela. 
 
Plate 4: showing the uMlazi River (uMlaas) Canal view from a washed away housing structure
Photo: Michelle Simon  

Yamkela lives along the banks of the uMlazi River in a container type housing structure. He has lived at this location for three years.  
 
Plate 5: showing the container housing structure
Photo: Michelle Simon  
 
“On the day of the floods, the water just came out and hit us. Other people moved out,” says Yamkela.
 
“It flooded three years back and the area was also flooded,” says Yamkela. 
“I’m staying here and then the floods came and ruined our furniture, our goods and destroyed everything inside our house. The school uniforms of the children flooded away and even our documents,” expresses Yamkela. 
 
Plate 6: showing the remnants of the floods
Photo: Michelle Simon  
 
Plate 7: showing flood victims’ belongings 
Photo: Michelle Simon  

Plate 8: showing a school bag lost to the floods 
Photo: Michelle Simon  
 
Yamkela expresses that, “Government could just move us to a safer place, so we are not affected by this kind of situation or floods again.” 
 
The uMlazi River was originally a naturally flowing river for its entire stretch but was canalised decades ago. The banks of the uMlazi River and the stream in Lamontville were unoccupied in 2007 and settlement of the container housing structures only seemed to be visible from 2008. The land alongside the stream was only visibly occupied from 2008 with the uMlazi River Northern Banks being settled on in 2021 with the construction of more container housing structures. Both the land alongside the stream and the northern banks of the uMlazi River were affected by the recent floods. 
Increased flooding and its associated impacts such as landslides, mudslides and sink holes are just some of the issues vulnerable communities and the city as a whole are dealing with.  
 
The Floods 
 
See Table 1 below reflecting Durban’s selected worst flood impact data since 1987 
 
Table 1: Recent Flood Impact Data for Durban , KwaZulu-Natal 
 
This data is merely a reflection of the floods recorded from 1987 onwards. 

Date

Rainfall

Loss of Lives

Affected Lives & Homelessness

Damage to Infrastructure

25th April 2025

Unknown at the date of publication.

 

1 known case

Independent Online KZN Floods 25 April 2025

Unknown at the date of publication.

 

“…flooding of roads, bridges and settlements, poor driving conditions, damage to infrastructure and destruction of mud-based houses.”

Times Live Durban Floods 25 April 2025

13th March 2025

103mm

Anecdotal data

Severe Weather and Information Centre SA Floods Durban

3 known cases

Death toll Durban Rains

Close to 6000 people affected

eThekwini Municipality Press Release 17 March 2025

 

Damage to property, roads and infrastructure.

1 452 houses affected

eThekwini Municipality Press Release 17 March 2025

 

25th–26th February 2025

92.60mm

Daily Maverick Floods 26 February 2025

6 known cases

Business Live Floods 26 February 2025

280 families in Lamontville

eThekwini Municipality Flood Press Release 26 February 2025

Damage to property, roads and infrastructure.

19th February 2025

184mm in Amanzimtoti, Durban

Daily Maverick Flood & Landslide KZN 20 February 2025

6 known cases

Daily Maverick Flood & Landslide KZN 20 February 2025

Hundreds displaced

Daily Maverick Heavy rains South Durban 26 February 2025

 

Damage to property, roads and infrastructure.

11th-12th April 2022

351mm over 24 hrs

Independent Online 2022 Rainfall 

Over 440 people have tragically lost their lives, including 57 school children

Unicef KZN Floods 2022

 

40 000 missing

Over 40 000 displaced in KZN

UKZN news KZN Floods 2022

Extensive mudflows and landslides, alongside channel changes, sedimentation and soil erosion.

 

More than 600 schools have been affected, with 124 being seriously damaged and 101 completely inaccessible and more than 320,000 pupils affected.

Unicef KZN Floods 2022

18 April 2019

165mm

Independent on Saturday Floods 16 April 2022

85 known cases

News24 KZN Flooding Death Toll 25 April 2019

Over 1000 displaced.

CNN KZN Floods 24 April 2019

Mudslides, the collapse of buildings and destruction of infrastructure

14-15 May 2017

~100mm of rain fell within 24 hours over Durban

Flood List Durban Rainfall May 2017

“…no reported fatalities…”

Flood List Durban Rainfall May 2017

“…hundreds of people have evacuated their homes…”

Flood List Durban Rainfall May 2017

Damage to property, roads and infrastructure.

27/28 September 1987

“…900mm rain over four days…”

South Coast Sun Floods

300 deaths

Independent Online

522 900 left homeless

Mail & Guardian

R3.3 billion in damages

Durban Flood Paper


Floods, April 2025 
 
The 25th April 2025 marked yet another day in the calendar with torrential rainfall, leading to flooding and mudslides, affecting many lives. The hardest hit was the uMlazi township. The Independent Online KZN Floods 25 April 2025 reported one death and many affected lives. 
 
Floods, March 2025 
 
The 13th March 2025 saw heavy rains hit the coastal city of Durban, yet again increasing the death toll and destruction caused by flooding. 
 
Floods, February 2025 
 
The month of February was marred by days of heavy rains bringing flooding to Durban and the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. Groundup reported on the recent KZN floods that “More than 20 people died in the last month and over 200 others were left homeless during the floods across KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).” 
 
Floods, April 2022 
 
The 11th to 12th April 2022 has been marked down as one of our most catastrophic natural disasters, the floods along the South African eastern coastline. As reported by Relief Web, “According to national authorities, 443 people died in KwaZulu-Natal and over 40,000 are missing. More than 40,000 people have been displaced, while nearly 4,000 houses were destroyed and more than 8,000 others were damaged, mostly across Durban City and its surrounding areas. A National State of Disaster has been declared in response to the floods and landslides, and rescue teams have been deployed to the affected areas to provide humanitarian assistance to those most affected.” 
 
According to Carbon Brief, “Meanwhile, 630 schools were affected in the KwaZulu-Natal province, impacting around 270,000 students. Overall, the rain drove $1.57bn in damages to infrastructure.” 
 
The flooding led to loss of lives and damage to property and infrastructure (roads and basic services – electricity, water, sewerage). This in turn, led to huge issues relating to shelter, safety and security, access to potable drinking water, sewerage overflows and pipe destruction.

Sewage contaminated rivers and soil. Water could be seen far and wide covering the landscape, roads became conduits to rivers of stormwater, gushing at high speed and full volumes down the hills. However, water infrastructure was considerably damaged and while water was everywhere, there was not a drop to drink. Community halls, churches and schools became make-shift shelters from the harsh elements. Water protests started up as soon as the rains stopped with indigent people struggling to survive on decimated landscapes and without access to basic services.  
 
Delwyn Pillay, an environmental activist and affected party of Durban’s April 2022 floods, had to relocate from his home in Pinetown after the floods and find a safer location.  
 
Pillay believes that, “Greater awareness and greater urgency is needed for communities to work with each other and work with the government sphere.” 
 
“One life lost is way too much!” says Pillay.  
 
The sea-level rising during storm events has also resulted in damage to the coastline properties and Durban’s promenade. 
 
“Higher sea rises, see the promenade being washed away, restaurants being flooded, loss of business and tourism,” responds Pillay.  
 
“The poorest of the poor are the most vulnerable groups affected by climate change impacts,” says Pillay.
 
People are being affected by climate change migration, having to be relocated or having to find a home elsewhere away from flood prone areas. Forced migration is a reality. 
 
“We are seeing all the waste ending up in the drainage systems and clogging it up and also along our river systems, small streams are being clogged up with waste, so we are seeing the floods and the water has nowhere to go because it’s clogged up with waste. So we are having these incidents of flooding,” expresses Pillay. 
 
Climate Change 
 
Durban, is a port city located on the east coast of South Africa in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. The city is dealing with a multitude of problems pertaining to climate change impacts such as erratic weather patterns and intensified storm events leading to coastal impacts, riverine impacts, geohazards, landslides and mudslides.
 
The United Nafons (UN) in a factsheet (UN Climate Change key findings) states, “In a 2018 report, thousands of scienUsts and government reviewers agreed that limiUng global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C would help us avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a livable climate. Yet the current path of carbon dioxide emissions could increase global temperature by as much as 4.4°C by the end of the century.” 
 
Durban has always been known for its warm climate, colloquially known ‘as the city that has one season, summer’. However, over the last two decades much has changed resulting in erratic weather patterns with the high sea swells of 2007 to horrific flooding incidents in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2025.  

Pillay explains climate change as “the changing of weather patterns, we are seeing more extreme weather, we are having more rain, really intensive periods in a short space of time.” 

“This has become our new reality, environmental activists have been saying this is coming, this is coming!” says Pillay. 
 
Flooding and Climate Change Impacts
 
The increase in temperature caused by anthropogenic (human-induced) impacts such as the emissions of Greenhouses Gases (GHG) caused by the burning for example of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel, “is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, coal products, natural gas, derived gas, crude oil, petroleum products and non-renewable wastes. These fuels originate from plants and animals that existed in the geological past (for example, millions of years ago). Fossil fuels can be also made by industrial processes from other fossil fuels (for example in the oil refinery, crude oil is transformed into motor gasoline) (Eurostat definiUon of fossil fuel).” The high volumes of toxic emissions have led to air pollutants causing global warming and rapidly altered unnatural climate change. This in turn has resulted in errafc weather paierns such as the increased incidents of powerful storm events. 
 
Durban as a city carries the burden of four types of flooding, that is, fluvial flooding pluvial flooding, groundwater flooding and coastal flooding.  
 

·         Fluvial flooding is when a river or stream overflow allowing water to flow onto the floodplain and surrounding land, as defined by ICLR.

·         Pluvial flooding “occurs when the amount of rainfall exceeds the capacity of urban storm water drainage systems or the ground to absorb it. This excess water flows overland, ponding in natural or [human-made] hollows and low-lying areas or behind obstructions,” according to Flood Info.

·         Groundwater flooding occurs when the natural underground drainage system cannot drain rainfall away quick enough, causing the water table to rise above the ground surface, as defined by Geological Survey.

·         Coastal flooding “occurs when sea levels along the coast or in estuaries exceed neighbouring land levels or overcome coastal defences where these exist, or when waves overtop over the coast. Wind speed and direction and low-pressure systems can force water into estuaries and harbours, case surge effects and create extreme wave conditions,” as defined by Flood Info.

The Lamontville floods along the stream and the uMlazi River reflected a case of fluvial flooding with the flooding of the road and stormwater drainage systems reflect pluvial flooding.

According to Dr Njoya Ngetar, an environmental and GIS specialist, “We have the frequency of floods, extreme rainfall and storms have increased and the impacts have also increased. The floods that used to happen in the past, it would take maybe a very long period of time before we have one drought, a long period of time before we have maybe a flood but now we have these things happening almost yearly now. Yearly now we hear of floods in every part of the world, whether it’s the developed work or in the global south and the less developed world, we have incidences of high rainfall, storms and floods happening of a very high magnitude actually with a lot of impacts to lives, destruction of property and infrastructure.” 
   
Case Study: Lamontville, Flooding and Climate Change 
 
Geographic Location 
 
Lamontville is a township located in South Durban, approximately 20 kilometres southwest of the Durban Central Business District (CBD). 

Topography

The Lamontville township reflects a landscape made up of hills and riverine valleys. Steep slopes can be found throughout the valleys harbouring streams and the main river, the uMlazi River.

uMlazi River and the Stream

The uMlazi River generally meanders in the southern portions of the Lamontville township, flowing from north-westerly to south-easterly, then flowing north to east and finally changing flow direction from north-west to east.

The uMlazi River flows in a westerly to easterly direction in the vicinity of the affected settlements in the recent 2025 floods.

Flood prone zones

The northern banks of the uMlazi river are occupied by settlements in Lamontville, whilst the southern banks are occupied by informal settlement in the uMlazi township. The river flows through both communities.

 “So in Durban we can see first-hand, we are getting stronger and shorter intervals of very intense rainfall events and it’s impacting on our infrastructure,” says Deven Naidoo, geologist and geohydrologist. Naidoo states that when it comes to flooding, “it’s more the denser, low-income areas and informal settlements that really get impacted by this and that’s because there’s not much engineering planning going into these areas and they really bear the brunt of the floods.”

Durban’s Climate Change Strategy

Durban Climate Change Strategy is the first multi-sector climate change strategy developed for Durban. Dr Sean O’Donoghue, eThekwini Municipality’s Senior Manager in the Climate Protection branch explains that the Durban Climate Change Strategy is about preparing for the impacts of climate change and mitigation, mitigating our emissions to be consistent with the world where global average temperature rises are limited to 1.5°C.

Durban’s Climate Action Plan (CAP)

In an attempt to address the impacts of climate change in the city, the eThekwini Municipality (the local government) has formulated a Climate Action Plan (CAP), in line with the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement, often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance.

According to Durban's Climate Action Plan , “A 1.5°C CAP is a city-wide plan that provides a pathway to transition Durban towards climate resilience and carbon neutrality by 2050, in a manner that is inclusive and leaves no one behind. The goal of the plan is to ramp up ambition and action that is required to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C. This is vital to avoid catastrophic impacts, especially facing our more vulnerable communities.”

“The CAP comprises of 33 actions and 149 sub-actions aligned to nine thematic areas that provide a pathway for Durban to achieve climate resilience and carbon neutrality. Durban sets out to achieve a 40% reduction in emissions from a 2015 baseline by 2030 and an 80% reduction by 2050 and has committed to identifying various opportunities to achieve carbon neutrality, including exploring the opportunity to generate carbon offsets, as the National Carbon Tax gets implemented.”

Durban CAP Thematic Area of Water and Flooding

Water and flooding have 7 high level actions and 30 sub-actions. Durban's Climate Action Plan states “The City is faced with aging infrastructure in a number of sectors and areas. With the City facing high rates of urban migration, this aging infrastructure can be compromised and easily impacted by the devastation of flooding. Climate change predictions indicate that there is a high risk of more frequent and severe storms. It is expected that flooding will further increase, exacerbating existing infrastructural challenges, thus requiring the need for urgent response measures.

Critically, municipal infrastructure at risk includes: 

·      Water supply, sanitation and stormwater infrastructure

·      Electricity sub-stations and power lines

·      Roads, bridges and pedestrian pathways

·      Public transport infrastructure

·      Coastal infrastructure.”

Community Education on Flooding and Flood-prone Zones

Dr Sean O’Donoghue says, “that firstly depending on which community we are in, we try to tailor our message to them and put it in isiZulu or in whatever language the community speaks and we would try and simplify the language. So not so much scientific speak. And quite often we draw on the local knowledge or traditional knowledge in communicating the message.”

O’Donoghue goes on to explain the education partnerships, “So we have a research partnership with UKZN [University of KwaZulu-Natal] called Durban Research Action Partnership, and within it we have a specific programme called Epic Education Partnerships for Innovation and Communities.”

O’Donoghue explains that “Students get introduced to real life challenges within communities and they do research on that and then the resulting knowledge that they produce helps the city and the community to co-implement.”

“So we focused on the Quarry Road West informal settlement quite intensively and we’ve had a whole number of research outcomes from there including during COVID. Understanding COVID impacts in the settlement, better developing flood and fire vulnerability maps with the community,” states O’Donoghue.

Transformative River Management Programme

“Another type of programme would be the Transformative River Management Programme,” says O’Donoghue. He continues expressing that “a lot of the projects that my department and the Biodiversity Management department can be framed by Community Ecosystem-based Adaptation [EBA], where EBA is looking after the environment because that helps. Then ecosystem services from in bio ecosystems would include climate protections. Wetlands slow down floodwaters and they clean water. Trees break up wind. All these sort of things are natural services. And so within this community ecosystem-based adaptation, communities get given the work of managing ecosystems to restore them and maintain them. A healthy state so that the services that ecosystems provide are optimised.”

O’Donoghue is involved in the Transformative River Management Programme and elaborates that the Sihlanzimvelo project as its key. “A major project where over 600 community members, as part of cooperatives, are managing stretches of streams to take out alien invasive plants and rubbish, so that when rivers come down in flood they don't block up bridges with all this debris and then force rivers to divert around the blockage and through settlements, which is exactly what happened during the April ‘22 floods and we see it quite regularly, even during smaller intense rainfall events. The aim of the TRMP in the city is to do all 7300 kilometres in the city. Currently we're only doing about 650km or so. So we need to really scale up that programme and it could create over 8000 jobs if it's implemented throughout,” says O’Donoghue.

“Further, there are a number of projects being run by the Biodiversity Management department around managing grasslands and ecosystems. There’s a treepreneur project which has had hundreds of community members grow collect and grow indigenous seedlings, which are traded with the project to create an indigenous forest around the Buffelsdraai Landfill site and on Inanda Mountain, and controlling alien invasive species,” expresses O’Donoghue.

“We’ve been involved in the CAP process. It’s there in paper but I don’t see the implementation of it,” says Pillay.Climate change has never been more real and the impacts are widespread. It affects all facets of life with far reaching consequences for the poor, vulnerable and marginalised. Climate action is critical and how we forge ahead as a global society and humanity at large, will determine our very ability to survive the catastrophic outcomes of anthropogenic pollution leading to rapid climate change. A solutions based approach must ensue with urgency if we are to mitigate and adapt.

Mitigation measures and solutions to flooding

There exists myriad problems with regard to flooding, settlement patterns, steep slopes and stormwater management. However, a series of actions can take place together with education and these need to be rolled out strategically and timeously.

Riverine, riparian and floodplain buffers

It is critical that informal and formal housing structures are not situated along the rivers, streams, channels, human-made canals. This means that adequate buffers need to be set, and those buffers need to be cordoned off as no-go zones, where development set-backs or buffers need to be adhered to. Buffers zones should be applied to all rivers, streams, riparian and floodplains zones at the maximum set-back and development should be prohibited within these buffers.

A floodplain is an area along a river characterised by alluvial deposits, riparian vegetation and attenuates flooding.

 The Definition of Riparian Zones, “Riparian zones, or areas, are lands that occur along the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies.

Wetlands and buffers

A wetland is a place in which the land is covered by water—salt, fresh, or somewhere in between—either seasonally or permanently. It functions as its own distinct ecosystem. You can recognize wetlands from other types of land or bodies of water primarily by the vegetation that has adapted to wet soil.

Floodlines and no-go zones

The 1:100 floodlines need to be determine onsite in Lamontville and other flood risk areas and demarcated clearly as no-go zones. 

“The city has a great GIS [Geographic Information System], we can map all the settlements, major rivers and their tributaries and have someone do inspections. Community liaisons are also important,” suggests Naidoo.

Flood attenuation and Stormwater Management Plans (SWMPs)

Hardened surfaces such as roads, tarmacs, driveways led to an increase in runoff. What is required is an approved Stormwater Management Plan (SWMP). The Stormwater Management Plan must be developed to attenuate the peak flows. The flood impacts within the site should be integrated into the layout design and the peaks can be attenuated to pre-development conditions, which would also minimise erosion and silt deposition downstream of the development. 

“Our stormwater infrastructure in Durban is overwhelmed. We’ve got more urban development that is happening and water from all these hardened surfaces and so many houses and all their water has to get into the stormwater drains and it’s not feasible to build more manholes. What we should look at is how we can get that water back into the ground safely, start thinking out of the box, get the water into the ground and natural drainage channels,” suggests Naidoo.

Lamontville requires proper SWMPs applied to site specific conditions.

Collapsible banks, slopes and soils

No development should take place on collapsible, erodible, soils to ensure structural integrity. No development should take place on seepage zones. No development should take place on slopes < 1:3, which are in essence steep slopes.

Naidoo says that “all the good land, all the land that is easy to develop and stable has been taken up for development and all that’s left is what we call sub-economic, marginally stable land and these are being settled on and densely settled on. It creates more instability on those areas, they become unstable, they are close to rivers and embankments, and these areas are the first to bear the brunt of climate change. So, we as a community, a city and [with] city bylaws need to educate people not to build on such unstable areas.”

“City officials should be checking up on these areas, making sure the unstable areas are sterilised as unstable as no-go zones for human settlement,” recommends Naidoo.

Avoid stream siltation

The prevention of siltation of the streams is required to aid in flood aversion measures. An approved Erosion Prevention and Sedimentation Plan must be implemented with the SWMP.

Landslides

Drainage measures should be designed to ensure that stormwater and ground water is collected and discharged in a controlled manner, thereby minimising erosion and the possibility of land sliding and scouring in areas adjacent to the riverbanks.

Settlement and flood prone zones

Settlement in flood prone zones must be avoided due to the risk to lives and property.

Cleaning of stormwater drains

It is imperative that all stormwater drains and culverts be cleaned and kept free of debris and solid waste. Community education is also vital in this regard.

“One of the things I’ve seen is stormwater infrastructure being blocked up and that’s often blocked up by litter. People littering and the litter gets into the stormwater and the litter gets into the stormwater system and blocks up and causes all sorts of issues. So, education about how litter affects the stormwater system should be made,” says Naidoo.

Avoidance of littering and waste dumping

We all have a role to play in keeping our environment and surroundings clean. This also extends to avoiding littering and waste dumping at all costs. The littering and dumping of waste in our rivers and streams result in the clogging of the river flows preventing water from flowing downstream resulting in flooding.

Role of vegetation

Natural vegetation plays a critical role in flood attenuation. Vegetation and re-vegetation are critical components of any SWMP. Vegetation filters stormwater and takes up nutrients, and in wet facilities, it promotes settling by reducing flow velocities and preventing re-suspension. The rooting systems of many species of trees, shrubs and plants effectively bind soils to establish a layer that is resistant to erosion.

Community-based river restoration

Communities need to take ownership of their environment and be custodians in protecting their natural spaces. This will lead to involved participation in counteracting detrimental impacts to lives, property, infrastructure and the environment.

Formalised housing infrastructure

Informal settlement along flood-prone areas come at a high risk to human life and infrastructure. Proper environmental impact assessments must be diligently conducted for all projects, even container housing structures. 

City-wide Early Flood Warning Systems

The city implemented an early flood warning system as a pilot project in Quarry Road informal settlement in Durban, which alerted the community to the impending flood that occurred in 2022.

Dr Sean O’Donoghue, eThekwini Municipality’s Senior Manager in the Climate Protection branch says that “the community based flood early warning system is very much done with the thinking that you know we have people that are currently living in really not very nice conditions, very dangerously located and until you know we can resolve where people can live more safely. More humanely, we’ll need systems like the flood early warning system because it is critical.”

O’Donoghue expresses, “A community-based flood early warning system that worked very well during the April ’22 [2022] floods when we didn’t lose anybody to flooding.”

It is imperative that the Early Flood Warning System be rolled out in all affected communities and flood prone areas with urgency.

Collective action – citizens, government and private sector

“Communities should be part of describing the challenges and working towards solutions. So wherever possible, I think you know that the engagement with communities and working with communities is essential,” says O’Donoghue.

Community Education, Climate Change Literacy and Environmental Education

Naidoo believes that community education is vital to addressing flooding, “one should also engage and educate our communities, that’s a very important step before we throw engineering practices at people. If you engage them and inform them and work together as a community then you can educate people not to build along and encroach on the floodlines. We see that a lot where informal dwellings mushroom well within the floodlines.”

“For climate change, we should have discussions and open forums and start it at schools,” suggests Naidoo.

“What is going on around the world is Climate Change Literacy, environmental education, disaster risk reduction and disaster risk education. So that is very cardinal, it is something that the municipality need to work on and put in a lot of resources. When I talk about resources, it’s not only financial but also human resources in terms of community-based education on the risk of living in areas that are at risk to climate change impacts due to floods, landslides and so on,” recommends Ngetar.

Environmental Impact Assessments and Risk Assessments 

“Service infrastructure is also disrupted by climate change impacts related to flooding and landslides and so on. When planning is done, what environmental impact assessment and risk assessment is done, that is very very important, in terms of flood risk, in terms of landslide risk and storms,” expresses Ngetar.

It is imperative that proper environmental impact assessments and risk assessments are conducted prior to any settlement, be it temporary, namely, container housing structures or formal housing and service infrastructure projects.

Going beyond the 1:100 year floodlines

The 1:100 year flood lines are vertical set-backs, whereas riverine, floodplain, riparian and wetland buffers are horizontal set-backs. The maximum buffers need to be a priority in all affected flood prone zones. We need to go beyond the 1:100 floodlines and ensure that there is an integrated environmental approach to setting buffers and no-go development or any non-settlement zones.

Climate Change is here and it’s happening with formidable power. We have decimated the planet. In order to survive, we need to radically alter the way we do things. Anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change has affected many lives, particularly the poor and marginalised. Nothing feels more real than the power of altered nature and the vulnerability of humans. It’s the 11th hour but it’s not too late to act responsibly.

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