WATCH | 'Everything's changed': Hope and despair for Umdloti residents three months after deadly floods

Three months after the deluge swept across parts of KwaZulu-Natal, leaving a trail of death and destruction, residents of one of the hardest-hit areas, Umdloti, remain optimistic while work continues to restore the coastal town to its former glory. 

Umdloti was ravaged by mudslides which caused buildings and homes on steep embankments overlooking the coastline to collapse. 

Resident Walter Wilis's life has been changed forever. The 79-year-old has had to move three times in three months since his home was crushed in a huge landslide which damaged several multimillion-rand properties on Bellamont Road and North Beach Road.

He said he was searching for answers after he narrowly escaped death on April 12. 

“I haven't got any answers as to whether I will rebuild my home and move back there. The 16 years that I lived there was the best in my life, with the bush on the one side, the sea on the other — it was close to nature and I loved it there.”

He described the earth beneath him as “a bubbling pot” as it swallowed up large portions of land. 

“It was horrific. It has changed my perspective on life completely. From the night before the floods to now, you can draw a line — that was the old me and now it's the new me and I am a completely different person.” 

For the past three months, Jabulani Ntanzi's life has seen him crammed in with at least 70 other displaced people from the informal settlements of Pholani and Lungelani, which were badly affected by the floods. 

The 56-year-old said he remained hopeful that survivors would soon be allocated temporary houses. 

“Our local committee was informed that premier Sihle Zikalala had earmarked vacant land in La Mercy where temporary houses would be built for us. This is expected to happen in the next three months,” he said.

Work by the eThekwini municipality to reconstruct portions of land washed away is ongoing. In May, mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said city engineers discovered that sand that had build-up on Bellamont Road had caused water to cross from one side to the other and this caused damage to properties.

“However, with the municipality installing these two high-density polyethylene pipes with inlets on both sides, water coming from the nearby forest will be channelled to the sea to prevent future damage to nearby properties and municipal infrastructure.”

The manager of eThekwini's coastal, stormwater and catchment management department, Greg Williams, said work in Umdloti is expected to be completed by the end of November.

He said work undertaken by two contractors included installing 900mm diameter pipes from the low points of Bellamont Road, which will run through to the beach, as well as developing storm water and sewer drainage to the properties that exist on the sea side of Bellamont Road.

“All those properties previously had sewer systems that went to septic tanks and storm water that went into tanks and fed back into the dune slope. We are intending to provide sewer and storm water pipes that would take that water away.”

On Saturday Zikalala reopened the M4 Umdloti River Bridge, near La Mercy, after extensive repairs after it was destroyed.

Paul Ramlal, a member of the road task team formed to deal with the reconstruction, said the reopening brought relief to thousands of motorists who commute to and from work. 

“We were losing an average of about 45 minutes per trip. It's a blessing now that this road is opened and it brings back our lives slowly.”

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