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#GlobalChangeConference: Is South Africa well prepared for natural disasters?

10 February 2023 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo FVH Productions

Prof F Engelbrecht — Professor Francois Engelbrecht, a Climatology professor and Director of the Global Change Institute at Wits University, believes South Africans should have more effective systems and strategies in place to prepare for natural disasters caused by climate change impacts.

South Africa must establish reliable early-warning systems and strengthen disaster management facilities to be better prepared for natural disasters on the scale of the April 2022 Durban floods. This was the advice of one of the participants at the fifth National Global Change Conference (GCC5) hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) from 30 January to 2 February 2023.

The GCC5 saw experts from across South Africa come together at the UFS’s Bloemfontein Campus to discuss the impacts of climate change on communities and devise strategies to mitigate its effects. The conference is organised every two years by the Department of Science and Innovation and the National Research Foundation.

The severe 2022 Durban floods were a prominent discussion topic, as they highlighted the urgency of climate change and its effects in South Africa and stirred debate on the need for proactive measures to prevent similar disasters in the future. The heavy rainfall from 11 to 13 April 2022 caused rivers to overflow in low-lying flood areas. The downpours quickly overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure, leaving thousands without housing, electricity, and other essentials. The national government declared a state of emergency and deployed rescue teams to assist those affected by the floods.

Prof Francois Engelbrecht, a Climatology Professor and Director of the Global Change Institute at Wits University, told delegates that better preparation for disasters like these should have been in place. “What occurred in KwaZulu-Natal should not have taken us by surprise, as it resembles [the KwaZulu-Natal floods of] September 1987, when over 50 000 people were displaced, and at least 500 lost their lives. To avoid a similar outcome in the future, we must establish effective community-based warning systems and implement an effective disaster-management plan.”

Charlotte McBride, Assistant Manager at the South African Weather Service, said, “A cut-off low in the upper reaches of the troposphere was moving seawards off the eastern coast of South Africa. Cut-off lows are associated with widespread instability in the atmosphere, which can promote periods of prolonged rainfall.”

McBride also emphasised the importance of developing effective coping strategies in light of these events and forecasts, including the implementation of systems that empower traditional leaders and ward committees by using early-warning systems.

News Archive

UFS presents unique rally

2005-06-07

On Friday 10 June 2005, the University of the Free State (UFS) will present the Kovsie version of the Amazing Race in Bloemfontein.

The Amazing Rainbow Rally will be held in aid of children and babies with serious diseases in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

By raising the necessary funds, equipment can be acquired to meet the unique health care needs of these special patients. It will also enable the UFS to maintain the high standards of education, training and research in this field.

The Amazing Rainbow Rally will give some residents of Bloemfontein an opportunity to test their knowledge of the city, as well as their time management skills, communication skills, team work and even their relationships!

About 12 corporate teams from among others Vodacom, Eskom, Medi-Clinic, Mimosa Mall and Nedbank and four university teams must follow a specific route with various checkpoints by car. Here they will have to complete activities or solve clues before receiving their clue to the next checkpoint. Teams will be traveling with cars branded with the logo of the company they represent.

The rally will start at 09:00 at the Rooiplein of the UFS and will again end on the campus where they will complete the last task. The first team to complete this task is the winner of Bloemfontein’s first Amazing Rainbow Rally.

OFM’s breakfast team will do live crossings on the day to reveal how teams are doing.

The Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the UFS serves children with special needs, in other words children who need intensive care, or who suffer from cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and conditions, endocrinological diseases or gastro-enterological conditions.

The Department provides secondary health care to more than 250 000 children in the southern parts of the Free State, but is responsible for the tertiary care of about a million children in the Free State and Northern Cape, as well as some parts of the North-West province, the Eastern Cape and Lesotho. The intensive care units at Universitas and Pelonomi Hospitals serve approximately 1 300 neonatal and 350 intensive care patients annually. The pediatric cardiology unit admits almost 300 high care heart patients per year. Approximately 13 000 out-patients visit these two hospitals every year.

MEDIA RELEASE

Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel: (051) 401-2584
   Cell: 083 645 2454
   E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

7 June 2005

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