EDITORIAL | As the poor bear the brunt, the least we can do is respond quickly and effectively

The impact of this week’s adverse weather in Durban again highlights how the poor bear the brunt of climate change.

In Inanda, north of the city, residents in the neighbourhood of Bhambayi were shocked when what appeared to be a mini-tornado blew in and destroyed their homes on Tuesday. Resident Philisiwe Gumede told TimesLIVE Premium that her house, which had miraculously survived last year’s devastating floods, was destroyed by the fierce wind.

Less than 5km to the north, residents of Mawothi were again losing their homes in Wednesday’s storm. For residents of this neighbourhood, it was a terrifying reminder of the floods that took place in April last year when families were torn apart as their homes — and loved ones — were washed away.

Climate scientists have repeatedly warned us that the western part of South Africa would dry out and become more prone to drought, while the eastern part will become wetter and prone to more severe weather events. This is exactly what we saw on Tuesday. We, and those who govern us, should not have been surprised.

Climate change casts a harsh light on areas of poor governance and inadequate service delivery. The eThekwini metro, where Inanda is located, has yet to complete the required repairs to infrastructure damaged in last year’s floods. Last week, seven beaches in Durban, including two in the holiday hotspot of Umhlanga, were closed ahead of the school holidays in which a flood of much-needed tourists was expected. The beaches were closed because of high e-coli levels caused by sewage pollution stemming from the wastewater treatment infrastructure damaged in the floods.

Climate change has also cast a light on improvements that urgently need to be made to the way we design our cities and the need for proper drainage as well as other mitigation methods.

The effects of the floods are far from over. Some of those made homeless remain in shelters and impermanent housing. The water supply to many residents of the city is still in disrepair. Some of the roads and other infrastructure remains unrepaired.

While there isn’t much we could do about nature’s wrath, disaster management teams and political leaders have to be nimble footed in how they respond to the devastation in communities. They need to ensure that where the weak and vulnerable are left without shelter, they act with speed to provide them with decent temporary shelter while repairs are effected. That those who were bundled into temporary shelters in Mamelodi, Tshwane, two years ago remain there, engenders no confidence that temporary shelters are, in fact, temporary. Ditto Durban flood victims of last year.  

Climate change has also cast a light on improvements that urgently need to be made to the way we design our cities and the need for proper drainage as well as other mitigation methods.

We call for accountable and transparent urban planning, by which residents can participate in and monitor improvements and repairs to the environments they live in, so they are better able to withstand the effects of climate change. We also need mop-up operations for Tuesday’s devastating storm that do not include dumping residents who have been rendered homeless in tents and community or school halls for months on end.

We need to demonstrate that we have learnt our lessons from last year’s floods.

South Africa’s poor are not the only marginalised people in the world bearing the brunt of the climate crisis now, however.

On the other side of the globe, in the US state of Texas, people are in the grip of an unprecedented heatwave where temperatures are nudging 48ºC this week. There, the poor are bearing the brunt of it too.

Poor residents cannot afford air-conditioning or the electricity to power it. They live in neighbourhoods with more tightly-packed housing, no gardens, fewer trees and far fewer parks than their middle-class counterparts. The high ratio of asphalt and concrete to green space in these areas results in so-called “heat islands” which can be more than 10ºC hotter than rich neighbourhoods, according to researchers quoted in the New York Times.

The examples from Durban and Texas illustrate the need for governments to ensure that the poor are provided with what they need to survive humanity’s greatest threat of our age.