NKOSINGIPHILE DLADLA
Durban — The South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) hosted an event focused on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience at the Diakonia Centre in Durban on Wednesday.
This was in commemoration of World Environment Day.
SDCEA co-ordinator Desmond D’Sa said the gathering was not only about education but also about coming up with solutions on how the community could work together, seeing how there were no early warning signs, especially for the poor and marginalised in Durban.
This year, the organisation found a link between a recent environmental hazard affecting communities and the global environment day.
The city of Durban recently experienced a storm, accompanied by heavy rains and strong winds, that devastated the uThongathi community and surrounding areas, taking seven lives during. All at a time when the city is recovering from the floods that left hundreds of people dead.
The SDCEA believes that all environmental issues are solvable, however, a community has to be equally involved.
D’Sa said World Environment Day was enormous for all who attended as it showed how much the entire city, as a community, cared.
“We share the pain and suffering of people of uThongathi and the north coast in particular because many of them have lost their lives. The reality is that climate change is upon us, has been upon us for many years and will be upon us in the future.”
He expressed disappointment about the lack of an emergency evacuation plan.
“There is no emergency evacuation plan that the people are aware of. So, there is no pre-warning and the disaster department in our city, in our province, has failed dramatically for the poor.”
D’Sa told the Daily News that most parties had emergency solutions on manifestos, presented to the public before the recent election.
“However, none of those (emergency plans) were useful when the city and the province needed them most.”
He said his proposed proper evacuation plan was education, which could be done for free. SDCEA member Shanice Firmin said World Environment Day was every day.
“We are here celebrating World Environment Day, yes it is a significant day and we realise that it is every day. Why we are here today is to really touch on major issues that we have been experiencing recently. We have seen the Eastern Cape floods, we have seen the oThongathi tornado,” said Firmin.
In a joint media statement, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, eThekwini Municipality and the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal said eThekwini had been the hardest hit, with health-care facilities treating dozens of people for injuries.
The oThongathi area, north of Durban recorded the most incidents, with several homes severely damaged, roofs blown off and trees falling on electricity lines causing power outages.
“Other areas around Durban, including uMgababa, Durban Central, and the western parts of the city, also experienced heavy rainfall, leading to flooding of some households and roads,” read the joint media statement.
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