Durban ﹘ Two months since the April 2022 floods, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala revealed that the cost of the flood damage is officially at R25 billion affecting mainly infrastructure networks, manufacturing and agriculture.
Zikalala was providing an update on the province’s response to the flood disaster.
“The cost of the flood damage is officially at R25bn affecting mainly infrastructure networks, manufacturing and agriculture,” Zikalala said.
He said that damage to KZN transport infrastructure amounted to R6bn including the M4 and R102.
“In the medium term, 730 key projects have been approved throughout the province to be implemented through emergency procurement, which includes the closure of potholes and repairs to damaged roads. KZN DOT has submitted 49 bridge sites to the National Department of Public Works for consideration for the bailey bridges programme,” Zikalala said.
Zikalala said that current indications were that the floods had affected a total of 85 280 people who were affected by the floods leaving 461 dead, 23 unidentified bodies with DNAs not collected, and 87 people still reported missing with 6 895 being homeless and 50 injured.
“In all, a total of 27 069 households were affected with 8 584 houses totally destroyed and 13 536 partially destroyed.”
Zikalala said during the disasters, they rescued 249 people alive through their search and rescue operations.
He said they still had 3 941 teams on the ground involving the SANDF, SAPS, Disaster Teams and Road Traffic Inspectorate teams involved in the sectoral responses to this disaster.
On the progress on rehabilitation and reconstruction, Zikalala said that major progress has been made to get the province fully back on its feet with it now entering the second stage which is to restore infrastructure and revive the economy.
Zikalala said that as they continued constructing temporary residential units (TRUs), their focus is to accommodate more than 4 396 families that were accommodated in halls, churches and schools.
“At least 206 TRUs have been completed to date and there is progress in identifying land for further building. So far four properties under Tongaat Hulett have been identified. Of the land identified in other parts of the province 258 land parcels (41.88%) do not have geophysical constraints, with 5.8% out of these being in eThekwini,” Zikalala said.
He said that as of June 1, their donor account had R3 625 960 in total, with R100 000 specifically earmarked by the donor for the Department of Health.
“An amount of R3 million is set aside for education mainly the fixing of four schools while R500 000 from the government of Qatar will be allocated to the Department of Social Development. We wish to acknowledge the generous donations we have received from major donors such as the government of the United Arab Emirates, Spirit Ambassadors International Church and Sasol. Harmony Gold this week pledged an amount to the tune of R600 000 which is not yet in the donor account as well as relief suppliers donated by Harmony Gold employees in solidarity with the flood victims,” Zikalala said.
He thanked all the donors for lending a helping hand.
The premier also clarified the processes involved in accessing the funds which have been earmarked for the disaster by National Treasury.
“While National Treasury has indicated that short-term immediate humanitarian relief is available to the tune of R1.018 billion, it is important to clarify that these funds are earmarked for disasters that may occur in the whole country during the 2022/23 financial year,” Zikalala said.
“Our provincial Disaster Management Centre has made an application to the National Disaster Management Centre for short-term humanitarian relief support to the tune of R1bn. Further to this, the province has made a request for R12.656bn for the municipal response and R5.157bn for the provincial response. This brings the total applied to R17.813bn for KZN sector departments and municipal damages.”
He added that their provincial departments are planning to reprioritise R3.652bn for the disaster, with these funds coming mainly from conditional grants under the departments of transport and human settlements.
Further non-infrastructure-related funding including support to business is coming from the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Traditional Affairs.
Daily News