Western Cape storms: Provincial government called to improve infrastructure as climate change bares its teeth
The Western Cape has been crippled by a deluge of rain which has caused flooding, damaging infrastructure, uprooted trees and rivers and canals bursting.
Thousands of residents across the province were affected.
While mopp-up operations continue across the Western Cape, there is no relief for residents as the South African Weather Service (Saws) issued a weather warning earlier this week for the City of Cape Town and surrounding municipalities for the weekend.
Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell said no final cost of damage has been estimated yet as the Western Cape Government (WCG) is currently in the first round of damage estimates.
He said some areas in the province remain too waterlogged for assessments to be conducted.
“Once this process is completed, municipalities will propose repair projects, and see if existing budgets can be re-prioritised for this. The provincial government will approach the National Disaster Management Centre with the list of projects which cannot be funded from existing budgets, which, if agreed on by national, will then be presented to the National Treasury for consideration. Disaster funding is typically made available at the beginning of the year with the National Budget announcement, or towards the end of the year during the Adjustment Budget process,” Bredell said.
One of the areas which had been most affected were the City of Cape Town, especially those in informal settlements which suffered from structural damages and flooding.
Another area which had been completely blocked off from entry or exit was Citrusdal.
“The access road to Citrusdal is also a major concern for us. It was damaged during the floods of 2023, and repaired, but now damaged again, so a sustainable long-term solution is needed there,” Bredell said.
He said the Western Cape experienced two severe flooding events in 2023.
“We believe climate change plays a role in these very intense weather events. The scientific community is in agreement that the Western Cape will in future become hotter and drier, and events such as floods and droughts will be more intense.
“Most of our large dams are currently 100% or close to 100% full. This is good news from a water security perspective,” Bredell said.
The WCG continues to follow the process with damage assessment, project identification, budget reprioritisation, and application to the National Treasury for flood relief funding.
Bredell said the Disaster Risk Management Centre has a sophisticated system where high-risk areas are identified according to the specific weather event.
“This system is applicable for floods, droughts, and wildfires during the summer months. It allows us to be proactive and keep people out of harm way as far as possible. This winter, we successfully coordinated with the City of Cape Town, Department of Water and Sanitation and Drakenstein Municipality to manage controlled water releases into the Berg River from Wemmershoek Dam in anticipation of heavy rains in the dam’s catchment, and in doing so, avoided flood damages downstream.
“Our Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning leads a climate change mainstreaming process across all provincial departments. It means all departments now need to include climate change risks and variables in their future planning. We also have a 15-year water resilience plan, which focuses on our ability to provide water security to a growing population. The plan provides tools for municipalities to calculate future water needs and choose the best combinations of water extraction and storage for their particular needs,” Bredell said.
With the extensive flooding across the City of Cape Town, even after the rains have subsided, many question where the flooded water go.
IOL reached out to the City, and mayoral committee member for urban mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas said the large volumes of rain overwhelm the stormwater system. During continuous heavy rain, when rivers and canals overflow, stormwater cannot drain freely from the roads into the watercourses. As soon as there is a break in rain, the flooding will slowly clear.
“During the heavy rainfall experienced, canals as well as retention ponds, detention ponds and other stormwater-related infrastructure will fill with water and distribute the flow to rivers and the sea as they are intended to do. The prolonged downpours, however, can and do overwhelm the systems and draining can take longer which causes localised flooding and the bursting of canals and rivers.
“Residents are reminded that this situation is made far worse than it needs to be due to the continuous dumping of rubble, plastics and other foreign objects into these systems which are designed for the movement of stormwater only.
“‘Capetonians can help avoid or lessen the misery and danger experienced by flooding by reporting blocked stormwater infrastructure and by reporting illegal dumping,” Quintas said.
Professor Richard Walls from Stellenbosch University’s Department of Civil Engineering said the provincial government should consider increasing the capacity of infrastructure to reduce further damage by making systems more robust.
“There are many types of infrastructure. Considering the extensive rain that fell many systems coped well. However, in areas where extensive damage has occurred, municipalities should look into how to improve infrastructure, maintain systems, be proactive during disasters and more.
“We always will need improved maintenance of systems. Our national roads have typically performed very well and damage has been limited. However, smaller roads in more rural areas have experienced quite extensive damage. Repairing and upgrading these can be a great expense considering the large road network that we have. However, improvements can certainly be made,” Professor Walls said.
Dr Robyn Pharoah, a senior researcher, and member of the Research Alliance for Disaster and Risk Reduction (RADAR) at Stellenbosch University said while the weather service has a well-established early warning system in place which is distributed to a disaster management centres, subscribers, the media and other some government departments who then distribute through their networks.
The challenge, however, is sometimes getting the message out to the public, although most people have access to TV and radio.
“We are a mostly a winter rainfall province and storms and floods are not unusual during winter. Before the drought, we conducted post-flood reviews of 12 flood disasters between 2003 and 2015 - almost one a year, with two in one year. However, we have seen a series of events in quick succession in the province. This is not massively out of form, but some of those we work with feel that severe weather events are becoming more severe. This is to be expected as climate change increases global temperatures. Weather will become less predictable and more severe,” Dr Pharoah said.
She said the recent flooding in Cape Town was associated with a series of normal fronts.
“Cut-off lows are normal rain-carrying low pressure systems, where a piece becomes separated from the main system. Instead of moving off with the rest of the system, they slow down and sometimes stop moving - instead of dropping rain and moving away, the cut-off low continues to drop rain for a longer period before eventually dissipating. This is why they tend to be associated with flooding. They are very common in winter and summer.
“They are not good or bad, they are a normal component of the climate. Interestingly, the recent flooding in Cape Town was associated with a series of normal fronts. We will likely see more rainfall. I can't say whether it will be better or worse. In areas where there has been a lot of rain already, we might see flooding just because the soil and conditions are already saturated,” Dr Pharoah said.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
IOL