Briefing by National Disaster Management Centre on disaster risk reduction strategies for upcoming winter season

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Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

09 June 2023
Chairperson: Mr F Xasa (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

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In a virtual meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) gave a briefing on readiness and disaster risk reduction strategies for the upcoming winter season. These included Fire Safety and Prevention Programmes that would create awareness among communities, communicable disease surveillance to avoid spread of communicable diseases, coordination of capacity building mechanisms, continuous awareness of water conservation and providing psychological support. Fire Services across the country have adopted the National Fire Safety & Prevention Strategy principles as gazetted in the White Paper on fire services.

The Committee was concerned about how the NDMC responded to disaster due to the low capacity of fire stations in different municipalities. They noted the Department's lack of cooperation with provincial departments, the lack of disaster prevention methods and how disaster management plans were not well curated. Members observed that with technology development, the Department could use Artificial Intelligence methods to improve their services and reduce corruption. The Committee urged the Department to increase their capacity in communities and fire stations so that citizens were exposed to quick and effective services. 

Meeting report

Welcome Remarks by Chairperson

The Chairperson welcomed Members and acknowledged apologies from Deputy Minister Parks Tau, Deputy Minister Zolile Burns-Ncamashe, and Ms E Spies (DA).

Presentation by National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) on disaster risk reduction strategies for upcoming winter season

Dr Elias Sithole, Deputy Director-General, NDMC, said South Africa faced increasing levels of disaster risk. It was exposed to a wide range of weather hazards, including snow, diseases, drought, fire, tropical cyclones, and severe weather hazards that can trigger widespread hardship and devastation.

The Winter Hazard Profile

Floods

High and medium-high fire hazard scores were observed over eastern parts of South Africa, including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, and minor areas over North West and Limpopo. NDMC planned to clean stormwater drainage systems, including culverts, to allow free flow of water.

Fire

Elevated flood hazard ratings were noted in northern and coastal KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. The countrywide forecast for the likelihood of above-normal rainfall may escalate hazard conditions in these provinces. NDMC planned to activate Fire Protection Associations supported by provinces and municipalities and put out early warning alerts using Fire Danger Index Rating and the advanced fire information system.

Snow

Elevated snow hazard scores for the winter months were observed over parts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu–Natal bordering Lesotho. Both minimum and maximum temperatures were forecasted to likely be above normal; this may mitigate snow hazard propensity this season.

Wind

The winter Seasonal Hazard Profile indicates wind high hazard ratings over significant areas in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Northern Cape. Medium to high wind hazard scores were additionally noted for the above provinces and areas in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga. These were mainly due to the cold frontal systems at this time of the year. NDMC planned to identify vulnerable communities to ensure deployment of resources through provinces and municipalities coordination.

Drought

Drought occurrence remained very limited following two wet summers and wet conditions during most of the current summer over the country. NDMC planned to have timely dissemination of early warning alerts as and when received from South African Weather Services (SAWS) to communities to promote early warning action.

The NDMC, in partnership with disaster management stakeholders, continued to monitor and consult on the development of hazardous conditions. They facilitated the updating, developing, and submitting the Disaster Management Contingency Plans for the winter season by the Provincial Disaster Management Centres and the national organs of state. A workshop was held on 20 April 2023, prior to the submission date, to provide support, deliberate on the progress for the development or updating of the plans and facilitate submissions by the stakeholders. The national contingency plan for the 2023 winter season aimed to outline the country’s preparedness capabilities and response arrangements within an integrated approach and shared responsibilities between government, state-owned entities, private institutions, communities, and individuals for coordinating and managing seasonal hazards.

The Disaster Risk Reduction mechanisms were implemented through risk knowledge, warning service, dissemination, and response capability.

Ms Christen Engelbercht, SAWS Official, said the observed Sea Surface Temperature anomaly over part of the Pacific Ocean that had a link with rainfall over South Africa was now positive after three consecutive La Niña summer seasons. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was currently in a neutral state but was predicted to likely move to a strong El Niño state in the coming summer season. Enhanced chances for above-normal rainfall were predicted for the winter rainfall during the June-July-August season for the larger part of the western, central, and south-eastern parts of the country. Above-normal minimum and maximum temperatures are predicted during the June-July-August season.  

See attached for full presentation

Discussion

Mr K Ceza (EFF) asked what mitigation measures and remedial action the command team had done to ensure a decentralised structure. In informal settlements, people waited long for fire brigade assistance. In the same way, they waited for ambulances until someone died without being assisted. Fire brigades needed to be decentralised. What funds had been allocated to e-government during the winter season? Since there was now the fourth Industrial Evolution, it was crucial to transition to e-Government and not use paper for payments. What action had been taken towards this transition to prevent corruption, financial mismanagement, and maladministration?

Mr I Groenewald (FF+) appreciated the presentation and said it was nice to hear that plans and strategies were set. He asked what NMDC was doing to prevent some disasters. Municipalities needed to maintain the grass next to roads to prevent fire. But when travelling in the North West, he noticed there was no maintenance and wondered what the Department was doing to engage the municipalities about this. Municipalities’ fire stations were not equipped with correct equipment; what was the Department doing to ensure each municipality had basic equipment? Considering the floods in the Vaal that happened at the beginning of the year, the Department took very long to report on the state of the area. That showed that there was no engagement with the provincial departments. This raises a concern about the relationship between the Department and provincial departments.

Ms D Direko (ANC) acknowledged the presentation which gave some good plans for mitigation, but said the reality was something else. One of the competencies of the municipalities was to deal with disaster management. However, from the oversight done in the Free State and North-West municipalities, some of the municipalities did not understand their roles in disaster management. Did the NDMC have a long-term plan for reducing disasters like other developing countries that had established laws such as the Carbon Print Laws to minimise the impact of disasters? During the KZN floods, she noticed that the municipalities could have avoided some deaths had they implemented effective disaster management plans, coordination, and communication. It would be good for the Department to train municipalities with effective and reliable disaster management skills and plans. With the current cholera outbreak, no campaigns were educating citizens about the disease and how to manage or prevent it. Prevention measures were very vital to save money that government could be using to fix one thing over and over because of the damage caused by disasters.

Responses from NDMC

Dr Sithole said NDMC had a Fire Services Seminar in Gqebera to indicate the need for repositioning fire services in the country, since the equipment was no longer in good condition to perform its job. NDMC was busy with funding models for districts to increase the capacity of the fire stations, and had signed an MOU with SANTAM Insurance for procuring fire engines and equipment for struggling municipalities. It was unacceptable that reports were delivered after four weeks of the occurrence of a disaster. Some districts were challenged with capacity. In some municipalities, a traffic officer would be delegated to be a disaster management coordinator. Such were the gaps that NDMC wanted to close through the process of a complete overhaul of disaster management. He agreed that NDMC needed to embrace technology and use it to deal with some issues. A team was busy reviewing the Master Systems Plan to bring in some technologies that could be deployed in disaster management in fire services.

Not all provinces had adopted the decentralisation process to take fire services to communities but had resorted to creating programmes like the “Bucket Brigade” to train community members to be active during fire instances. He acknowledged that there were no disaster management plans. He said that NDMC was reviewing the disaster management system to have long-term plans in alignment with the development of the country. He emphasised the need for a credible document allowing other departments to have input instead of the risk assessment plans that NDMC currently had in place. He noted the comment about creating campaigns for awareness to community members and said more work would be put towards them.   

Mr Ronald Hendrics, Director: Fire Services, NDMC, said with the major constraints that fire services had, there was a need for a collective effort. Municipalities were entering into mutual aid agreements to assist one another across borders, within provinces and hazardous material responses. It was important to understand that fire services were currently limited and issues that needed to be addressed could not be dealt with by government assistance only. The strategic intent needed to be relooked to capacitate all spheres of government for current and future needs. The NDMC had a strategy that dealt with prevention, ensuring that proper fire risk assessments were done. This meant going to the municipality space to ensure that the strategy was implemented, that necessary resources were allocated, and that municipalities could deal with any kind of fire outbreak. Prevention was included in the Fire Services’ White Paper; this included being aware of risks in an area and implementing prevention measures against any outbreaks that may occur.

Ms Jennifer Kolokoto, Director: Disaster Risk Reduction, NDMC, said the hazard profile had indicated some hazards that appeared in the presentation with risk reduction measures. NDMC was raising awareness about tightening up risk reduction measures every season to deal with all identified hazards. NDMC was on high alert should anything happen so they could coordinate efforts to mitigate the effects of whatever hazards could be experienced at a season.

Further discussion

Mr Groenewald asked if the Department had ever looked to fix firefighting planes, as they would be a great addition to the equipment used during outbreaks. He agreed that firefighting was a collective effort and suggested that other organisations centred around disaster management be included in the course. He asked that the Department provide the Committee with a report listing the fire stations in each municipality indicating their readiness with domestic fire, field fire, and rescue and how many people each station served in their radius. He further asked that the Department include the readiness of the call centres in each province because many citizens had complained about calls not being answered in times of need.  

Response from NDMC

Mr Hendrics said NDMC worked with provinces and municipalities to identify historically risky areas and gave community members as much awareness as possible. NDMC was in the process of concluding the state of readiness assessment across all provinces and municipalities. After this assessment, the Minister would be approached about establishing the ministerial board of fire services according to the Fire Brigade Services Act. NDMC would ensure they include domestic fire, field fire, and rescue criteria in the report and send it to the Committee as requested. The Department of Airforce was working to supply resources, but he could not provide the Committee with reliable information on how the fire services would be supplied. The impact of aircraft support to firefighting in the Western Cape was noted, and NDMC supported it.

Closing Remarks

The Chairperson thanked Members for their attendance and NDMC for the briefing. He asked that the state of readiness report be sent to the Committee within 14 days.

The meeting was adjourned. 

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