SEVEN provinces have been declared national disaster areas following adverse weather that hit parts of the country in December and last month.

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) has indicated that the thunderstorms, disruptive rains, floods, windstorms, and hail that hit the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Limpopo, North West, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga are a national disaster.

NDMC head Dr Elias Sithole said the decision was taken after having deliberations with various organs of state and heads of provincial disaster management centres, and after assessing the magnitude and severity of the severe weather, which has and may still result in the loss of life, damage to property, infrastructure and the environment, as well as the disruption of basic services.

”The primary responsibility to coordinate and manage this disaster, in terms of existing legislation and contingency arrangements, is designated to the national executive,” Sithole explained.

Organs of state have been called upon to further strengthen their support to the existing structures to implement their contingency arrangements and to ensure that measures are put in place to enable the national executive to effectively deal with the effects of this disaster.

The NDMC recommended that the national executive and the respective provincial executives implement a multi-sectoral relief and rehabilitation plan to deal with the effects of the disaster.

The centre proposed that each organ of state prepare and submit progress reports in line with its requirements in order to monitor the response initiatives by organs of state, non-governmental organisations, and communities.

In December, two people died after they were swept away by strong river currents in Centurion, Tshwane.

Last year, the government spent an additional R2.1 billion in unforeseeable and unavoidable expenditure mainly for disaster relief.

This prompted the National Treasury to undertake a detailed analysis of the experience of local governments in their access to emergency financing and their ability to disburse it, as it dawned that climate-related disasters were intensifying, damaging infrastructure, and disrupting life.

It is hoped that this analysis will help the government better understand municipalities’ capacity to manage a multi-layered disaster risk finance approach.

The analysis will also look into the willingness of municipalities to independently manage their financial response to disasters, existing incentives to invest in readiness, and their ability to set aside sufficient funds for their response

The government has admitted that the increasing frequency and intensity of climate disasters is costly and that it needs to proactively work to reduce their impact on the fiscus and on society.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za