The demonstration on Thursday briefly blocked a major highway in the eastern city of Durban, where more than 300 people have lost their lives in floods in recent days. The president, Cyril Ramaphosa, described a “huge disaster” and blamed the disaster on a climate emergency. South Africa is preparing for more heavy rains in areas hit by record-breaking rain earlier this week. “It tells us that climate change is serious, it’s here,” Ramaphosa said as he visited the flooded eThekwini metropolitan area, which includes Durban, on Wednesday. “We can no longer postpone what we need to do and the measures we need to take to tackle climate change.” Analysts have often expressed concern that climate change will put enormous stress on already volatile or weak countries, exacerbating existing problems and forcing governments that have no money to use scarce resources to offer relief or reconstruction after extreme weather events. The South African Meteorological Agency has warned of strong winds and heavy rains in KwaZulu-Natal and some other provinces over the Easter weekend. Meteorologists said the floods had taken them by surprise. Some areas of KwaZulu-Natal recorded almost average annual rainfall in 48 hours. “While the impact-based warnings were indeed issued in a timely manner, it appears that the extremely heavy rainfall even exceeded the expectations of the South African meteorological community in general,” the meteorological service said in a statement. The agency said that while it was impossible to attribute a single event to the climate crisis, “we can say with confidence that globally (as a direct result of global warming and climate change), all forms of extreme and extreme weather conditions… more common and more extreme than in the recent past. “In other words, heavy rainfall, such as the current incident, can be expected to recur in the future with increasing frequency.” The death toll is expected to rise as search-and-rescue operations continue, officials said, and the full extent of the disaster is becoming clear. Thousands of people have been left homeless by floods, roads and bridges have been destroyed and at least 248 schools have been damaged. In one municipality, a Methodist church was swept away. A Hindu temple was severely damaged in Umhlatuzana, Chatsworth, near Durban, when a river burst its banks. Elsewhere, floods caused massive landslides. The port of Durban, the busiest in South Africa, was also badly hit. In Amaoti, a municipality north of Durban, residents were balancing precariously on the side of a broken road, trying to get clean water from a broken pipe below. Floods have destroyed water pipes and power lines in large parts of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area, and it will take at least a week for those services to be restored, officials in Durban said. NGOs were trying to alleviate the plight of the affected communities on Thursday. Damage to Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area is estimated at 757 million rand (39 39 million), eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said on Thursday. At least 120 schools have been flooded, causing damage estimated at more than 380 million rand and forcing officials to temporarily close all schools in the province. At least 18 students and a teacher were killed in the floods, Education Minister Angie Motsegga said. “It’s a disaster and the damage is unprecedented. “What is even more worrying is that more rain is expected in the same areas that have already been affected.” The volunteers said they desperately wanted to get food, clothes and other necessities. In a darkroom in the Glebelands hostel area of Durban, volunteers used torches from their mobile phones to record dozens of displaced people overnight. “We’re just helping people because we care,” said Mabheki Sokhela, 51, who helped set up a temporary shelter in a community hall. The ruling African National Congress, which has been in power for almost 30 years, has often been criticized for its inadequate response to natural disasters. Rescue efforts by the South African National Defense Force were delayed as the army’s air wing was affected by the floods, but the army has now deployed personnel and helicopters to provide humanitarian assistance. The rain continued in areas of Durban on Wednesday afternoon and flood warning was issued in the neighboring province of Eastern Cape. Durban was the focus of deadly riots last July that killed more than 350 people, the worst unrest in South Africa since the end of apartheid.
