Status: 04/14/2022 02:12 a.m
Heavy rain in South Africa has killed more than 250 people. Because many people are still missing, this number is likely to increase. Criticism of the authorities is getting louder and louder.
Many people spent the night in churches or in city buildings. Especially those who have lost their huts and houses are stunned. A young man living in a corrugated iron shack in a shantytown near the port city of Durban was caught dead in his tracks the previous night.
We could feel the ground moving. We figured it would just be some mud and sand, not that it all just washes away. When I got out of bed, I was standing in the water. It was that bad! Everything is gone.
The heavy rain was unusually heavy. Thousands of houses have been damaged or destroyed, roads have collapsed or been washed away, bridges have collapsed. The entire province of Kwazulu Natal is affected, a kind of federal state that also includes the coast of the Indian Ocean.
“People are desperate.”, Richard Klug, ARD Johannesburg, on the flood in South Africa
tagesschau24 6 p.m., April 13, 2022
“Nothing works anymore”
There was damage even further inland. A student is clueless.
I wanted to go to school but there was no bus. Everything is chaotic, I have to sort my life first. You can’t even cross the river, nothing works here. I can’t go to church, I can’t make phone calls anymore, nothing works.
In fact, radio masts have also failed because of landslides. Hundreds of additional police officers and armed forces are deployed to maintain the critical infrastructure. Aid supplies are brought to affected areas by helicopter.
Criticism of authorities for lack of investment
The classic shipments of goods from the major port in Durban have come to a standstill. Gavin Kelly is President of the Road Haulage Association.
The access roads to the harbor have been washed away, only one or two remain open. The depots where the containers are stored are under water. We’ve even seen containers washed away. Even where the trucks are parked, everything is under water. They’re totally filthy, we’ll have to make sure they still work. It’s bad. Simply incomprehensible what power water has when it overflows its banks. We see that now.
Criticism has been voiced from many quarters that the authorities have failed. In many places the infrastructure is outdated, the sewage system is dilapidated and not maintained, the settlement policy is misguided because many people build their houses in depressions or on rivers.
More rain forecast
Asogan Naicker lives on a hill outside of Durban. His house is still standing, and yet nothing is normal.
Here all the streets are flooded and washed away. We can’t get in or out. We’re trapped at home, we’re locked in. We have no water and no electricity. But it’s not the first time, the river has burst its banks before, only it wasn’t as bad as now. That fell on deaf ears and now we have the situation where the damage is higher than if you had invested to prevent it.
Climate change is also blamed for the heavy rain, because other parts of South Africa are also experiencing extreme weather conditions. The classic Easter travel wave that would roll towards the Indian Ocean is now canceled this year. Because the South African weather service predicts further rainfall for the holidays.
Devastation and deaths: Balance of heavy rain in South Africa still provisional
Jana Genth, ARD Johannesburg, April 14, 2022 at 12:02 a.m