Recent extreme weather events in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape must refocus the country’s attention on the important, but often underestimated, question of climate change, as well as the need to treat it with greater seriousness and urgency than has hitherto been the case.
Weather-related disasters have not only increased in frequency, but have become more severe. For instance, in the last week or so, KwaZulu-Natal has been affected by flooding precipitated by heavy rains that has caused severe damage to infrastructure in the affected areas. In Tongaat this week, at least 12 people were reported dead after a tornado hit the town.
In the Eastern Cape, heavy rain and flooding over the weekend killed at least nine people and left more than 2,000 homes destroyed.
These events, part of an increasingly recurrent pattern, come on top of the devastation caused by severe flooding and landslides in KwaZulu-Natal in April 2022, which claimed about 450 lives and displaced 40,000 people. As many as 12,000 houses were destroyed.
Beyond loss of life and the destruction of private property, extreme weather events take a heavy toll on economies, given the damage they cause to essential infrastructure and public services. Resources that should be used for development then have to be redirected to efforts to repair and rebuild broken infrastructure.
The frequency of such events, which scientists have been warning about for a while now, requires us to change our attitudes and understand that this is a problem requiring the intervention of all stakeholders, including individual citizens, organised civil society, the business community and the government.
We must introduce measures to future-proof our society, including revising settlement policies and legislation, ensuring the stricter enforcement of bylaws, and improving public education around climate change.
To prevent even more costly consequences, including further loss of life, the time to act is now, not later.
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