Today, we convened a special EXCO meeting to assess the progress on the intervention to assist communities and families that have been affected by the disaster. Our main focus was on ensuring that we restore services to the public and provide much needed relief to the bereaved families.

 

The floods we experienced in the past few days are far worse than those we have seen in recent years and the damage to infrastructure has been extensive. Our teams are hard at work to resume services however, it may take a while to fully restore all services because of the extent of the damage to access roads.

 

We understand the frustration and anxiety of our residents, but we urge you to be patient. We are working as quickly as we can.

 

Therefore, we want to assure you that while we may not be able to visit every household, we are working closely with ward councillors to ensure that our interventions reach all affected families.

 

We have established 17 shelters accommodating 2138 displaced people at community halls where they are receiving hot meals, blankets, and mattresses in a clean environment.

 

Summary of current estimated impact is R 757 million. The President will convene cabinet to resolve on the declaration of the state of disaster so that we can start receiving relief funds.

 

60 percent of our areas are accessible by public transport. Areas like Molweni are still inaccessible. Our engineers are on the ground to clear and repair some of the routes including Bayhead, which is a key economic zone for the country and continent. We are happy to announce that the KZN Department of Transport has assisted us with their heavy- duty equipment to accelerate the clearing of roads.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, we receive 95 percent of our water from Umgeni Water. Of serious concern is the damage to two, out of four of Umgeni Water’s Nagle Aqueducts. These are the aqueducts that supply water to Umgeni Water’s biggest water treatment works called Durban Heights. This waterworks normally supplies about 540 Ml per day to the city.

 

Currently, this capacity has been reduced to about 350 Ml per day. As a result, a number of areas have already run out of water. Tongaat Waterworks that supplies the whole of Tongaat suffered serious damage that will take months to repair.

 

In the interim, we will be deploying more water tankers and we procuring a package plant that will be able to supply water. Umgeni Water and COGTA have also committed to assist us with additional water tankers.

 

For Inanda Dam, electricity is going to be back today and by the end of tomorrow, we should be back to normal in terms of water storage, while we work on the distribution infrastructure. This will enable us to refill a number of reservoirs before communities can start receiving water.

We call upon residents to conserve water if they still have supply.

 

Power has been restored to most parts of the city and only three substations remain off because of extensive damage. These are Wentworth, Toyota and Prospecton. Our teams are also working hard to restore power in areas around Inanda Dam.

 

Some of the delays in restoring power in these areas has been caused by damage to road infrastructure. Technicians are working in three shifts to ensure that power is restored as soon as possible.

 

In addition, more contactors have been brought onboard to support the repair effort. We are planning to clear all outstanding faults today.

 

We are pleased to announce that Eskom has come on board and suspended loadshedding for us so that we can deal with this disaster.

 

R28 million damage has been caused to our depots and landfill sites. For this reason, we urge residents to follow our updates about the resumption of waste collection.

 

Due to flooding, the city is unable to accept requests for burial until the situation returns to normal. This is due to ground being saturated as a result of heavy rains. We are monitoring the situation in all our gravesites to ensure that we are able to conduct burials soon.

Since Tuesday, our councillors and officials are working closely with the families of the deceased to ensure that burial assistance is provided.  

 

Manufacturing and tourism are among the sectors that have been severely affected by this disaster.

 

The number of visitors over the Easter weekend is expected to drop because there are areas that have no water and electricity. This is going to affect jobs in the hospitality sector.

 

We want to send a clear message that despite this challenge, eThekwini is open for business.

 

As the leadership of the city, we also want to condemn incidents of looting that we have witnessed in areas such as Umlazi. We commend the police for apprehending some of the suspects who were involved in this criminality.

 

We want to assure you that we are working hard to rebuild the city from this disaster.