It's a dog's life for South African flood victims

Communities devastated by historic flooding in South Africa's most populous province of KwaZulu-Natal have begun rebuilding damaged infrastructure themselves, as thousands remain homeless or without water, sewerage, bridges and electricity.

The damage from the flooding has been put at $2 billion – more than 10 times the initial estimates.

But neither national nor provincial administrations have the cash and personnel to quickly repair the damage caused by the raging waters unleashed a month ago.

Both climate change and a once-rare particular atmospheric phenomenon, a cut-off low pressure cell, were behind the rains that were more intense than any previously recorded.

Over 450mm fell in just 48 hours across a large area in the south-eastern parts of South Africa, heavily affecting KwaZulu-Natal, with the worst damage wrought along coastal regions as a vast volume of water sought to find a way towards the Indian Ocean.

By the latest count, at least 489 people died, others are still missing and almost certainly dead, 4,000 homes were destroyed and about 40,000 people were displaced.

There have been other severe flooding events in this part of South Africa, but none caused the extent of the damage seen in these latest downpours.

In 1987, a similar cut-off low pressure cell delivered twice as much rain to the eastern parts of the country, but was spread over four days.

In the latest downpours, most of the rain fell in a period of less than 36 hours, undermining and washing out many bridges and river crossings.

Major sewage systems were damaged and washed away, with sewage now flowing across roads and making life unbearable for thousands of affected people.

Over 80 percent of the province's sewage treatment works remain out of commission.

Thousands of homes and businesses still have no water for the same reasons, while there are also areas where electricity supply has yet to be restored due to the extent of damage to the transmission system.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised that his government would work to restore key infrastructure, such as important bridges and roads, and that no community would be left abandoned.

But a month on, and with little sign of the government coming to their rescue, some communities have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Several community groups north of Durban have combined forces, first to get the scattered attention of regional authorities overwhelmed by the sheer number of crises and problems demanding instant attention, and then to repair damage.

In one instance, a key link road that connects communities along KwaZulu-Natal's northern coastline has been cut by the undermining of a major bridge.

Several directly affected communities have combined forces with civil society groups to gather the money to buy the hardware to repair this arterial bridge.

The cost to the local community is high, in lost time and extra money to take lengthy, traffic-clogged routes for their daily commutes or in getting children to and from schools.

Frustrated by the lack of direct action by the KwaZulu-Natal regional authorities, where the relevant capacities and funds should reside, these communities approached officials last week to get the go-ahead to raise funds to pay for what will likely be a very costly bridge repair. The provincial authorities said they would supply the manpower to rebuild the bridge.

But this is just one instance among scores across the province, and in an area where mainly middle-class people live, meaning those communities have the means to at least in part help themselves.

Civil society has stepped in to help poorer communities where access to basics such as water has become a full-time and onerous undertaking.

In many areas, damaged water reticulation systems are unable to deliver water, even to communal locations, requiring water tankers to service such communities. But there is a shortage of tankers and personnel, and some areas do not have any service for up to a week or more at a time.

One civil organisation, Gift of the Givers, has earned an international reputation for its prompt and efficient response to crises of various kinds, from the current floods to similar events in Mozambique, and even a recent humanitarian mission to Ukraine. The group has taken to drilling borehole water sites for water-constrained communities unlikely to see 'normalised' water supply for months, perhaps years.

These communities have welcomed such developments, with elderly residents saying it had become nearly impossible to live, having to physically carry any water needed for daily life over long distances.

But the inroads are small, compared to the extent of the problems.

Security analysts point out that instability similar to the riots that followed former president Jacob Zuma's jailing in July last year are increasingly likely in communities that were already under stress before the floods.

They say the Ramaphosa administration does not, in the wake of the financially damaging Covid-19 pandemic, have the funds to restore essential services to many tens of thousands of people any time soon.

Emergency housing and support, including provision of hot meals, continues to be a priority among government agencies responding to the crisis and civil society groups such as Gift of the Givers.

But there is no sense of clarity on how long such measures will need to be in place, the slow pace of recovery to date indicating that a return to pre-flood conditions is still a long way off.