·         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.

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 11^th hour but it’s not too late to act responsibly.