“A total of 40,723 people have been affected and, unfortunately, 341 deaths have been reported,” said Sile Zikalala, the prime minister of the affected province of KwaZulu-Natal, in an online news conference. “We can confirm that the magnitude of the damage, which is still being quantified, will certainly reach billions of rand,” he said, calling the floods “an unprecedented disaster in the history of our province and perhaps our country.” The province was declared a disaster area on Wednesday after heavy rains over the weekend and heavy rain on Monday that flooded homes, swept away roads and bridges and cut off shipping to one of Africa’s busiest ports, with some containers and containers. looted. People fill buckets with water from a broken water supply network on Thursday after damage to flood water services in Durban’s Amaoti. (Rogan Ward / Reuters)

“We do not have anything”

“It’s bad, it’s bad. We have nothing. I do not even have a bed,” Somi Malizole, a resident of the informal settlement of Isiphingo, told Reuters as he inspected his grooved iron shack where the contents had been washed. Away. Akhona Mfencane, another Isiphingo resident who was seeking refuge in a community center, said she left her home after it was flooded and she had nothing left. As of Thursday, Mfencane was still waiting for help from the government. “The place is always flooding, but this time it was worse, we have never seen it like this before,” Mfencane said. A general view of the Sapref Sports Center covered by floods on Isipingo Beach, Durban on Thursday. (Phill Magakoe / AFP / Getty Images)
On Thursday, residents in some areas tried to get clean water from broken pipes and water tanks after municipal services, including electricity, were hit. “We have no water, no electricity. It was difficult,” Thabisile Mathumbu said, adding that communities had not been warned of heavy rainfall. “We should have been warned.” The government was still counting the number of missing and displaced, said Zikalala, the prime minister. The disaster has damaged 248 schools and severely disrupted water and electricity services, although efforts are being made to get things back to normal, he said.

President blames climate change for floods

The southeast coast of Africa is at the forefront of marine meteorological systems that scientists believe are deteriorating due to global warming. They expect the situation to get much worse in the coming decades. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the province on Wednesday, described the disaster as “a huge disaster”, adding that “it was obviously part of climate change”. Residents stand on a bridge that collapsed north of Durban on Thursday. (Marco Longari / AFP / Getty Images)
“We can no longer postpone what we have to do, the measures we have to take to tackle climate change. Our disaster management capacity must be at a higher level,” Ramaphosa told a crowd in Ntuzuma, Durban. without giving further details. The floods hit as the province recovered after days of arson and looting last year that killed more than 300 people. With unrest in several parts of the country, KwaZulu-Natal was the hardest hit with several businesses being disrupted.