SAfrica Durban Floods Return USAGM
Metadata
- SAfrica Durban Floods Return USAGM
- May 25, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English FOR USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: SAFRICA DURBAN FLOODS RETURN HEADLINE: South African Flood Victims’ Shelters Damaged by More Rains TEASER: Flood victims in the port city of Durban say there needs to be more action from government to protect the public from further flooding PUBLISHED AT: Wednesday, 05/25/2022 8:58 am BYLINE: Linda Givetash & Zaheer Cassim CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: Durban, South Africa VIDEOGRAPHER: Zaheer Cassim VIDEO EDITOR: PRODUCER: Marcus Harton SCRIPT EDITORS: Schearf, wpm VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, Other (see Courtesy for Emily Hector, Zoom) PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_ TRT: 2:39 VID APPROVED BY: BR TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES: There is a radio story accompanying this piece. )) ((INTRO)) Flood victims in South Africa's port city of Durban had yet to recover from last months' historic rain when another storm hit this weekend. Victims and experts say it is a signal that better urban planning is needed to protect residents and their livelihoods from future extreme weather. Linda Givetash reports from Durban, South Africa. ((NARRATOR)) It has been over a month since historic floods in South Africa’s eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal made nearly 7,000 people homeless. But their numbers are growing as heavy rains and repeat floods hit the port city of Durban last weekend, destroying more homes, and damaging this temporary shelter. ((Emily Hector, Umlazi Community Leader, (English, 20 sec)) “It's not getting better. It's getting worse.” (8:13) “So if it happens for the rain to come back again. So that means we won't have a shelter to accommodate other people because the people, the halls right now, it's overloaded.” ((NARRATOR)) KwaZulu-Natal officials say at least 250 people were evacuated from shelters. South African federal authorities earmarked $63 million for clean-up and rebuilding while funds are also coming from various levels of government and aid groups. But victims say they haven’t been told when they will get to move to longer-term housing. ((Masbonge Dlamini, Flood Victim (English, 21 sec)) (10:04)“We don't have another space. If we do, we will try by all means to escape for all escape, escape to that place directly. We will not going to go to a hall whereby you will sleep with many people as far as we are here with because it’s because we don't have a choice. We don't have another places.” ((MANDATORY COURTESY: Emily Hector)) ((NARRATOR)) Experts are calling South Africa’s severe weather damage a wake-up call for better disaster management in the face of climate change. ((MANDATORY COURTESY: Zoom)) ((Alize le Roux, Institute for Security Studies, (English, 18 sec)) “I think it shows us that we are definitely not prepared for even worse storms in what we see now. And to be clear, what climate change will do is it will shift these systems even more. So we need to be prepared for seeing what we've saw on a more regular basis. So more often, we will see these types of flooding.” ((VIDEO-VOA: Umlazi devastation)) ((NARRATOR)) But experts say re-building from damage like South Africa’s flooding is also an opportunity to safeguard from future extreme weather. The advice includes keeping homes and infrastructure out of floodplains, developing more precise early warning systems, and having clear evacuation plans. ((MANDATORY COURTESY: Zoom)) ((Alize le Roux, Institute for Security Studies, (English, 17 sec)) “We need to think about restoring ecological infrastructure — so upstream, ensuring that we manage our basins or water basins adequately and rightly enough so that we actually mitigate flooding. (14:57) We also need to think about the vulnerabilities within communities so things like addressing poverty, the systemic drivers of why people are locating on these high-risk spaces.” ((NARRATOR)) Many of the South African flooding victims lived in informal settlements on city outskirts with poor infrastructure. They say more public housing inside the cities would be safer, offer better access to public services, and help prevent more people from ending up homeless. ((Linda Givetash, for VOA News, Durban, South Africa))
- Transcript/Script FOR USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: SAFRICA DURBAN FLOODS RETURN HEADLINE: South African Flood Victims’ Shelters Damaged by More Rains TEASER: Flood victims in the port city of Durban say there needs to be more action from government to protect the public from further flooding PUBLISHED AT: Wednesday, 05/25/2022 8:58 am BYLINE: Linda Givetash & Zaheer Cassim CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: Durban, South Africa VIDEOGRAPHER: Zaheer Cassim VIDEO EDITOR: PRODUCER: Marcus Harton SCRIPT EDITORS: Schearf, wpm VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, Other (see Courtesy for Emily Hector, Zoom) PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_ TRT: 2:39 VID APPROVED BY: BR TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES: There is a radio story accompanying this piece. )) ((INTRO)) Flood victims in South Africa's port city of Durban had yet to recover from last months' historic rain when another storm hit this weekend. Victims and experts say it is a signal that better urban planning is needed to protect residents and their livelihoods from future extreme weather. Linda Givetash reports from Durban, South Africa. ((NARRATOR)) It has been over a month since historic floods in South Africa’s eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal made nearly 7,000 people homeless. But their numbers are growing as heavy rains and repeat floods hit the port city of Durban last weekend, destroying more homes, and damaging this temporary shelter. ((Emily Hector, Umlazi Community Leader, (English, 20 sec)) “It's not getting better. It's getting worse.” (8:13) “So if it happens for the rain to come back again. So that means we won't have a shelter to accommodate other people because the people, the halls right now, it's overloaded.” ((NARRATOR)) KwaZulu-Natal officials say at least 250 people were evacuated from shelters. South African federal authorities earmarked $63 million for clean-up and rebuilding while funds are also coming from various levels of government and aid groups. But victims say they haven’t been told when they will get to move to longer-term housing. ((Masbonge Dlamini, Flood Victim (English, 21 sec)) (10:04)“We don't have another space. If we do, we will try by all means to escape for all escape, escape to that place directly. We will not going to go to a hall whereby you will sleep with many people as far as we are here with because it’s because we don't have a choice. We don't have another places.” ((MANDATORY COURTESY: Emily Hector)) ((NARRATOR)) Experts are calling South Africa’s severe weather damage a wake-up call for better disaster management in the face of climate change. ((MANDATORY COURTESY: Zoom)) ((Alize le Roux, Institute for Security Studies, (English, 18 sec)) “I think it shows us that we are definitely not prepared for even worse storms in what we see now. And to be clear, what climate change will do is it will shift these systems even more. So we need to be prepared for seeing what we've saw on a more regular basis. So more often, we will see these types of flooding.” ((VIDEO-VOA: Umlazi devastation)) ((NARRATOR)) But experts say re-building from damage like South Africa’s flooding is also an opportunity to safeguard from future extreme weather. The advice includes keeping homes and infrastructure out of floodplains, developing more precise early warning systems, and having clear evacuation plans. ((MANDATORY COURTESY: Zoom)) ((Alize le Roux, Institute for Security Studies, (English, 17 sec)) “We need to think about restoring ecological infrastructure — so upstream, ensuring that we manage our basins or water basins adequately and rightly enough so that we actually mitigate flooding. (14:57) We also need to think about the vulnerabilities within communities so things like addressing poverty, the systemic drivers of why people are locating on these high-risk spaces.” ((NARRATOR)) Many of the South African flooding victims lived in informal settlements on city outskirts with poor infrastructure. They say more public housing inside the cities would be safer, offer better access to public services, and help prevent more people from ending up homeless. ((Linda Givetash, for VOA News, Durban, South Africa))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date May 25, 2022 09:02 EDT
- Byline Linda Givtash
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America