R1.8bn bill for Western Cape flood repairs — province ‘needs climate-resilient infrastructure’

‘We do need to build a climate-sensitive and carbon-resilient infrastructure,” said advocate Chantel Smith, the head of the Department of Infrastructure in the Western Cape.

She was part of a provincial delegation that addressed the Western Cape legislature’s standing committee on infrastructure on Friday. Topics related to issues within the department included the impact of flood disasters in the province. 

From 2023, there have been several weather-related disasters, including massive flooding in Citrusdal in June 2023. More flooding occurred in September 2023. In June and July this year, heavy rains hit several parts of the Western Cape. Rainfall in July had already been above normal before mid-month. 

Read more: Western Cape rainfall for July ‘already above normal’ — SA Weather Service 

These events led to widespread damage, from a humanitarian viewpoint and to infrastructure. In the committee meeting on Friday, it emerged that from June 2023 to July 2024, the estimated costs for flood damage stood at R1.8-billion.

Smith told the committee that the department needed to build “climate-sensitive and carbon-resilient infrastructure”. The department needed to mitigate further risks by ensuring that new infrastructure was more resilient to climate change by building back better – a more climate-resilient reconstruction. 

“Using the example of Franschhoek, with each flood there is damage to the road surface,” she said. The province could not therefore effect repairs that would later be washed away. 

Smith said weather-related events would have an impact on funding. At present, a core focus was “emergency response”. 

Highlighted flooding areas included the MR310 that links Citrusdal to the N7, Cederberg, Swellendam and Die Plaat road networks that were closed and damaged. The department needed to reallocate resources to ensure strategic roads were safe and accessible. While some roads were still affected by these weather-related events, the roads still needed permanent maintenance and repair actions. 

In the committee meeting on Friday, MEC for Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers said the department had asked the National Treasury for more than R800-million to help deal with the flood damage repairs.

In an interview with Daily Maverick, Simmers said: “The overarching costs from 2022 up until July 2024, the total implication and repairs caused by the disasters is over R1.8-billion and when you deduct the R350-million that we got, we are still shy of R1.5-billion.”

Last Thursday, Daily Maverick reported that Western Cape MEC for Local Government Anton Bredell said residents of Riverlands – another community that has faced flooding and now, water shortages, should sue the national government departments of water and sanitation, and land reform and rural development, after they failed to listen to the community’s needs and thus allowed for more flooding. DM