DURBAN (Reuters) – South African authorities released emergency funds on Friday to help the tens of thousands of people left without shelter, water and electricity after flash floods swept away homes and roads and killed more than 300 people on the east coast of the country.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told the Newsroom Afrika television channel that the first billion rand (about 63 million euros) for emergency aid was available for immediate use and more would follow.
Ministers arrived in Durban on Friday to assess the damage, estimated at several billion rand by local authorities.
Flooding this week in KwaZulu-Natal province has caused water and power cuts, halted operations at one of Africa’s busiest ports and littered roads and beaches with debris.
“We are still at the stage of emergency relief. We must act quickly,” said the minister. “The first phase is to get professionals to assess the damage and the cost. The second phase will be recovery and repair.”
Local authorities estimate that more than 40,000 people were affected and 395 people died.
The province was declared a disaster area on Wednesday to allow the arrival of emergency aid funds.
Scientists estimate that the southeast coast of Africa is being hit by increasingly violent storms and floods as the Indian Ocean warms due to greenhouse gas emissions — a trend likely to s worsen over the next few decades.
(Report by Rogan Ward, written by Tim Cocks, French version Dina Kartit, edited by Matthieu Protard)
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