Cape Town - Western Cape officials have raised the alarm over the continued existence of informal settlements at the ecologically rare Driftsands Nature Reserve on the Cape Flats.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning told the provincial standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that as a result of climate change, extreme weather events were being experienced more often.
Environmental Sustainability director Karen Shippey said if a storm like the one that killed more than 400 people in KwaZulu-Natal were to hit Cape Town, a lot more lives could be lost in the informal settlements encroaching on the Driftsands Nature Reserve.
“Every time it rains, I hold my breath because I don’t know when we’re going to get that big storm. In terms of scale, it’s the kind of storm KwaZulu-Natal had. They lost 400 lives in that storm. If we had that storm, we would lose more, just in Driftsands,” she said.
In April, severe flooding and landslides in KZN caused by heavy rainfall caused the deaths of 448 people, displaced more than 40 000, and destroyed more than 12 000 houses.
Shippey said this was one of the reasons the province was desperate to move people out of the area.
She said of particular concern were the families living on and around the retention dam wall in the informal settlement known as Dubai.
Shippey said the retention wall was designed to protect Mfuleni and all the informal settlements below the Driftsands area at the N2 at that point from flooding.
“That dam specifically concentrates run-off and it can flood incredibly easily. It floods literally from 2m to 6m over six hours. So if you’re asleep in your shack, you could be drowned. That is the scale of what we were talking about,” she said.
Shippey was responding to questions from Scopa members during deliberations on the department’s and Cape Nature’s annual reports for the 2021/22 financial year.
Committee member Melikhaya Xego (EFF) had asked about the status of the Driftsands Nature Reserve and what CapeNature’s plans were.
“Is it a lost case? Or what is the way forward?”
Others who asked questions related to Driftsands and the communities in and around the reserve were Nomi Nkondlo (ANC) and Matlhodi Maseko (DA).
In April, the department and Cape Nature announced a preliminary plan to de-proclaim and abolish the Driftsands Nature Reserve after land invaders occupied it during July 2020 during the pandemic.
At the time, the department said the natural ecosystem inside the reserve had been transformed to the point where the negative impact was irreversible, and Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell had allowed the de-proclamation process to be initiated.
Scopa chairperson Lulama Mvimbi (ANC) said he would forward the information and the concerns to the relevant standing committee so it could take urgent action.
MEC Anton Bredell said he was deeply concerned that national government initiatives and actions were too slow to address the double challenges of climate change and rapid urbanisation in South Africa.