Local Government MEC Anton Bredell says the Western Cape will have to redesign certain critical infrastructure to prevent future damage in light of three provincial disaster declarations in just over a year.
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Adding that it was ‘unsustainable’ to keep relying on funding from provincial disaster declarations to respond to flooding, Bredell notes that budgets are limited. ‘We struggle to get the luxury of having time to get ahead of the weather.’
‘Climate change is real. We’ve discussed this, as a government, and we know that there is some infrastructure we will need to redesign to cope with the predicted weather changes.’
‘We are encouraging municipalities to think about building anything new, with future thinking.’
As reported by News24, simple changes such as increasing the size of stormwater pipes and clearing rivers of invasive species could be implemented to create more robust designs of roads and bridges.
Bredell adds that these strategies were introduced in 2010.
Recent storms resulted in widespread flooding and infrastructural damage across the province, affecting about 200 000 people in Cape Town, the Cape Winelands, and the West Coast.
It could cost billions to repair these damages, based on flood damage assessments in previous years.
Last September, road damage alone amounted to R1.3 billion. In June last year, the local agricultural sector suffered more than R1 billion in infrastructural damages.
‘We are living in a period of climate change. There are things we cannot change on our own because they are dictated by climate,’ Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa said during a site inspection this week.
‘What it means is that we need to be proactive. We need to ensure that we plan ahead because there are indicators which demonstrate what is coming next.’
‘Dealing with disaster is expensive because you need to pull money from other areas in order to deal with the disaster that is in front of you.’
‘The best thing we need to do is to be proactive and plan ahead to avoid major disasters, including persuading our people to move away from low-lying areas because that is a ticking timebomb.’
He added that the three spheres of government would ‘need to work together’ to find solutions to natural disasters.
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Picture: Breedevallei Munisipaliteit – Breede Valley Municipality / Facebook
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