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The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery today began its three-day oversight visit to the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province to assess the extent at which government has been able to provide assistance to the KZN province towards the flood disaster relief and recovery from the 2022 floods and establish the amount of damage caused by the recent 2023 floods.
 
The committee is encouraged by the progress that has been made by the Umgeni Water Board in the rehabilitation of the Nagle Aqueducts 1 and 2 which were damaged during the April 2022 flood disaster. The committee visited the rehabilitation sites and has noted the good progress made. The rehabilitation of these aqueducts ensures that raw water flow from the Nagle dam through to the Umgeni Water’s Durban Heights water treatment plant so that the residents of EThekwini Metro Municipality can receive water.
 
The committee has also appreciated the forthrightness of the EThekwini Metro Municipality on the challenges it has experienced due to corruption in its supply chain management processes which have impacted negatively on the supply of water to areas that were affected by the floods amongst other challenges. The committee has urged the municipality to come up with a permanent solution to the water challenges in order to avert opportunities of corruption in that space.
 
The committee also received and appreciated a consolidated report from the province on progress made in relation to specific sectoral issues it raised during its previous visit to the province. The province was encouraged to respond to the committee's specific unanswered queries in writing by Friday, 30 June 2023.

The committee changed its programme slightly today and visited Inanda’s Dube Village where many households were destroyed by yesterday’s inclement weather conditions. The committee was encouraged to see the Minister of Human Settlements, Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi, the Premier of the province, Ms Nomusa Dube-Ncube and the Mayor of EThekwini Metro, Mr Mxolisi Kaunda assessing the extent of the damage in the affected area. Furthermore, the committee hopes that the necessary relief and recovery measures will be undertaken to assist the victims of the damage at Inanda.

It is important for the province to mitigate the occurrence of disasters caused by the weather by ensuring that it conducts regular maintenance of the infrastructure. It has also urged the municipality to urgently engage its communities on mitigation and adaptation strategies on climate change particularly in a province such as KZN that is prone to natural disasters.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Co-chairperson of the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery, Cedric Frolic