Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane said the deadly floods in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, which damaged thousands of homes have highlighted the need for climate resilient materials and affordable alternatives to mud houses. She said the upcoming summit on Innovative Building Technologies (IBTs), which will take place next month, will be aimed at providing such interventions. While stressing the need for the summit, which will bring experts, government leaders, and business titans together, Simelane explained just how vulnerable thousands of South Africans are to the devastating impacts of natural disasters.
Simelane said the country has 4 700 informal settlements, whose residents are often the hardest hit by disasters. The summit forms part of the department’s strategic interventions aimed at addressing South Africa’s persistent housing challenges, including housing backlog, the continued existence of informal settlements, and the prevalence of mud houses and structurally unsafe dwellings, particularly in rural and disaster-prone areas. Simelane said the risk to the safety and wellbeing of mud houses or shack occupants is compounded by climate change, which has increased the frequency and severity of floods and storms.
Rapid urbanisation and population growth has also contributed to natural disasters becoming more deadly, she said. “These dynamics require new and innovative approaches to housing delivery that are faster, more cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, climate resilient, and capable of being deployed at scale,” she said. Simelane said her department is working to accelerate the delivery of homes to mitigate the impact that natural disasters have on rural areas, which is reaping rewards; however, community outreach events, where the department asks people to relocate, are not as successful.
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“When I was in Lamontville last year, I told an 87-year-old man that he would need to move as he is too close to the riverbank, but he said he would not move as he was born there and his father was born there, so it’s very difficult to convince people to move as the area they live in is often all they know,” she said. Climate change expert, University of KwaZulu-Natal Professor Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, said government is on the right track to mitigate climate change impacts by becoming reactive rather than proactive; however, those responsible for disaster response need to be better capacitated and co-ordinate with one another better.
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