Attachments
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the crisis
Between 8 April to 12 April 2022, record-breaking rains inundated the region around the port city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The floods washed away infrastructure, land, houses and livelihoods. Sadly, 435 people lost their lives and 80 were reported missing. A total of 19,113 households with 128,743 people were affected by the disaster.
On the night of 18 April 2022, the president of South Africa, declared the KZN floods as a national state of disaster1 to maximize national and provincial coordination to respond to the urgent crisis in affected communities. The hardest-hit areas were informal settlements built close to the rivers, below flood lines, and rural areas especially on steep hillsides with little or no infrastructure to protect them. Many of the houses were made of basic materials, tin sheets, wood (often salvaged) and mud hence most of these homes were completely washed away. The rains and floods occurred at night when everyone was sleeping, making the event even more frightening and deadly. Critical infrastructure such as major roads, water treatment and supply, communication, and electrical systems were also damaged by the floods. Extensive damage to community infrastructure included 600 schools and 84 health facilities. As the Province was grappling with the aftermath of the April floods, the South Africa Weather Service (SAWS) issued an early warning LEVEL 10 Alert of disruptive rainfall in different municipal areas. On 21st May 2022, the storm affected the districts of Ethekwini, King Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude which resulted in damaging roads, human settlements, and properties. Some of the already displaced people were further displaced as their evacuation centres got flooded as well. The Tenuis hostel, one of the evacuation centres in Umlazi, Durban, was flooded and 190 people were evacuated to the Wema Hall on the other side of Umlazi, Durban. Additionally, 44 units at the Waterways Retirement village in Tongaat collapsed and 40 people were evacuated to St Catherine in ILembe district. The second floods caused significant damage to the King Cetshwayo, ILembe and Zululand districts. Table 1 below gives a holistic picture of the number of people affected by the floods per district.