EDWIN NAIDU
NORTH WEST University (NWU) academic in the African Centre for Disaster Studies, Professor Livhuwani Nemakonde, says the heavy rainfall experienced in South Africa in recent weeks is due to a combination of factors.
“Climatologists have indicated that this is because of the La Niña phenomenon. La Niña (Spanish for little girl) is the opposite of an El Niño (little boy), which usually predicts low rainfall for South Africa. In simple terms, this means that most parts of the country will receive above average summer rainfall, and it is for this reason that seven of the nine provinces received huge amounts of rainfall that led to flooding,” said Prof Nemakonde.
He said the impact of the floods is relatively high, particularly in parts of Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
“The amount of rainfall plays a major role, but other human-related factors such as residing in low laying areas, flood plains, riverbanks and poor infrastructure contribute to the impact of floods,” added Prof Nemakonde.
He said weather forecasts warn that the trend might continue into the last week of February and that South Africa will likely receive more rain into autumn.
With seven of the nine provinces affected by the floods that resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of infrastructure, the government declared a national disaster on 13 February 2023.
According to Prof Nemakonde, government officials argued that the disaster declaration would help expedite resource availability to those most affected.
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