Imtiaz Sooliman – KZN Floods Update on the latest from the ground

Well, gift of the givers is one of the organizations helping on the

ground. Let's speak now to the founder, Dr Imtiaz Suleiman,

Doctor, thank you for being with us as always. When you look at the

death toll and look at this figure, 87 people still missing,

so the death toll could go up considerably already at 461

I guess it reminds us just of the scale of this tragedy, how deadly

these floods were. Do you get a sense of that even now on the

ground in KwaZulu Natal,

good evening, Francis, yes, the death toll is far higher than

that. When the figures were on 337

we had already set up a Muslim person's line, and at that point,

within hours, there were another 237

people missing, when the debt tolls around 353 50. So the

figures are now sort of balancing out from what the Premier is

saying and what we have found on the ground, and to answer your

question, and of course, that was from what people had told us

directly, but a lot of people probably could not communicate

with us, because many families are washed away. When our teams went

around to the different areas, they were told the water came like

a very angry sea. It washed people away to have neighbors. All of

them disappeared. So lots of people disappeared quickly, and

there may be no account of those people, if you just buy analogy,

if you think that the water and sort of reflect that the water

could take shipping containers and throw them and throw them against

the bridge, what did it do to informal settlements, houses that

are built of cardboard, corrugated sheet and plastics, so many people

must have been washed away. So the death toll is still probably much

higher than that figure, and we will never know to answer the

second part of your question, but each day, as you go around, you

realize the extent of the damage. You know, when the water is down

and floods are gone, you can see the amount of infrastructure

damage in the various areas and the and the nature and the extent

of the infrastructure damage in the roads, in the houses, in the

schools, in the health facilities, the water plants. It's huge. The

destruction has been probably the it is the biggest natural disaster

we've had in our history. Sure, it's just completely, unbelievably

awful when you talk about whole families being washed away. But to

return that eight to that 87 people still missing. Have you met

any families who are missing a loved one? I mean, what do you do

now with two months down the line? When do you give up? Are there any

searches, or has that that been stopped? And then, I guess you

just hope bodies turn up? How does it work?

Well, you at some point you take a decision that search, and it's not

rescues, recovery. There's no There's no point, because you know

the water has washed our way into the sea, or the deeply buried in

ground, and you know that they completely decomposed. We still

get messages people saying we have four people that are missing. My

child is missing. They give you areas, but those areas have been

searched before. Teams have gone there before, but people are

always looking. You know, it's a natural human instinct. You want

closure. You want to find the body of your child or your husband or

your father or your brother, and unfortunately, in most cases, so

late in the day, you're not going to find them. Yes to answer your

other question. Some bodies do come out. Have still been coming

out. You know, it's been a lucky for those families, lucky on the

one side that the body is found. Secondly, you got another point.

It's very sad that the person is diseased, but that's the reality.

After the second week, we tell people it's very unlikely you will

find anybody alive unless they caught up somewhere else. They're

not in the water. They stuck somewhere and, you know, and they

didn't have a cell phone or communication and that did happen

where somebody called us a week later and said we found the family

member. They had no phone, they they were still stranded anywhere,

and they got hold of us, and of course, to be asked them to check

all the mortuaries, check the hospitals, and as, as has been

mentioned in your report, there are people that have not been

identified yet. The possibility is that those people are not

identified, maybe their family members have also passed on. Sure.

Give us a sense of the scale of need. You spoke about the huge

infrastructural damage that is going to take a long time to

repair, but give us a sense of the scale of need in terms of people

who don't have water, some who don't have homes, who are still in

those community centers who are still relying on food aid?

Well, food aid is still going on, not to such big extent anymore.

You know, a lot of people have moved from the centers to their

families or their neighbors, but there's still about 40,000 people

who need homes. The big problem is there hasn't been an intervention

in terms of infrastructure. Yes, the sides of the roads have been

cleaned. Yes, they're moving the rubber out of the way. Yes, the

lands that are being sorted out. Some of the roads are being sorted

out. Some of the water cities are being sorted out. But there's far

more needs to be done in terms of the big roads. There's a huge I

mean, if you drive anywhere, they tell you the roads are closed,

but.

On the m4 the bridges are destroyed. And in the second flood

that came, or the second range that came after the third flood,

back on the m4 the llamas See More, more parts of the bridge

were destroyed. So under the roads have to be recreated many parts of

the province. That's the first thing. Second thing is houses have

to put up. 40,000 people their homes. Nobody has made any effort

to start any homes right now, schools, the school damage, 12 to

600 schools have been affected, and very minimal work has been

done on that. And health facilities, we look at 100 80

million Rand, but of damaged facilities, that hasn't started.

The water situation in togar is now probably 60 days plus where?

When I say people don't have water, which water not coming out

of the taps. Yes, we've put in 15 balls where water tankers are

coming, what bottle water has been coming? But it's not the

conventional way in which you get water from the tap and many other

areas. The water fluctuates. It comes, goes, it comes, goes for

weeks on egg and then we are now drilling balls in areas that were

affected with water even before the first flood came. So there are

areas in KZN that are water deprived, not related to the

floods. There's just no water, yeah, so there's a demand for

water is in many more areas. And you know, we're building those

areas. We're building houses, we're repairing schools. We've

given 50 million of contracts already. Regret the first time

schools, and even in the school itself, we're doing a process,

what is called jetting. Jetting is to be more sand and sludge inside

the storm water drains, which haven't been maintained for years.

And one of the reasons where the schools got very badly flooded is

because of the storm water drains, and we visit cleaning those things

up outside. Doctor, finally and quickly, please, what you're

saying is very concerning. We need a great rebuild here. We knew that

there were low lying bridges. They not only have to be built, but

they have to be built safer that actually put people in danger. So

huge

talk. Well, there's a lot of talk about the infrastructural rebuild.

The premier was talking about donations. Are you engaging with

the provincial government at all? I know it's beyond your purview.

But do you ask questions? Why are these roads and schools and all

these things that you've mentioned not being rebuilt as quickly as

possible?

I don't need to ask them. I know the answer.

There's no money for that. You know, they wait. There's a

discussion going on the one side, they say that the Treasury says

you got to apply for the money from which the governments and the

city council said they applied for the for for the for the money from

the from the Treasury you, you get the feedback from the deputy mayor

that no, it's told that they never applied for the money. So it's a

ping pong is going on between different tiers of government, and

that's one of the major problems with South Africa. It is that the

disasters. It's a disaster in terms of its disaster management.

There's too many structures involved. There's no one clear

coordinated system where you want to press one person press the

button and everybody down the line follows the system. We don't have

that kind of coordinated system, and that's why there's so many

different divisions involved. And the funds are not coming. The

reality is it's simple. You need to build bridges. You need to

build roads. Now yesterday, I heard something very disturbing.

I've I was told that, yes, our contract was given for the roads

and the bridges on the M form, and there were several, several

bidders, and after one of the Budd got it and the other one to the

one that got it to port. So that process is delayed. Again, we keep

having this kind of issues that delays infrastructure, but they

that money is never going to be enough to fix everything up. When

are they going to start building the houses? When they're going to

start repairing the schools? There are whole schools that is very

dangerous for kids to go to. There's no water in areas. There's

no sanitation. It becomes a hygiene issue. The classes are

dangerous, the roads are dangerous, and sub school is so

totally destroyed, which has to be refurbished in huge quantities.

We're talking about 3 million, 6 million, 8 million. Of course,

there's other one fortunate, 30,000 50,000 80,000 but all this

requires a lot of money, and it's besides the 100 and 80 million

required to fix the hospital facilities.

Gift of the givers, founder, Doctor Imtiaz Suleiman, looking at

the sad state of affairs. This is two months after that devastating

fatal flooding in KwaZulu Natal.