Question NW1539 to the Minister of Human Settlements
03 June 2022 - NW1539
Siwisa, Ms AM to ask the Minister of Human Settlements
What immediate plans have been put in place by her Department for housing allocations for the victims of floods in Kwazulu-Natal who have lost their homes and; b) Are there plans in place to work with the Department of Public Works and infrastructure for the allocation of land to build houses for the victims?
Reply:
In terms of the provisions of the Constitution, policy and legislation, the Kwazulu Natal Department of Human Settlements (KZNDHS) is responsible for the planning and implementation of housing and human settlements programmes in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. This includes the Human Settlements Emergency Housing Programme. The KZNDHS have advised that they have commenced with the process of providing temporary residential units (TRUs) for households whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by the floods which occurred during the course of April 2022. The households are currently being accommodated and housed with neighbours and/or in halls and/or churches and/or tents..
The KZNDHS Department was at the final procurement phase the temporal residential units as follows: 200 units for Ugu District municiplality, 200 units for iLembe districts and 600 units for eThekwini, respectively. To date approximately twenty five (25) temporary residential units (TRUs) have been completed and allocated to families affected by floods, in the various Municipalities in the Province. The procurement of the balance of the temporal residential units will be finalised during May 2022.
The KZNDHS are providing the TRU’s to those families whose homes have been totally destroyed and damaged to the extent that they are unfit for human habitation. As of 25 April 2022, the estimated number of totally destroyed houses was determined to be 4478. Where a home has been partially damaged and can be repaired in the immediate short term, the KZNDHS are providing vouchers for material to be sourced, for the homes to be repaired.
Furthermore, post the disaster the KZNDHS has identified public owned land parcels, focusing on Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) land and property. In addition provincial and municipal vacant and suitable land is also being identified by the province and various municipalities to support the flood disaster mitigation and intervention measures. The process to identify DPWI land suitable for human settlements is on-going. In addition to identification of land parcels, geophysical constraints assessments are undertaken to identify factors such as slope, 1 in 100-year flood plain, intersection by river/streams and/or wetlands as well as whether the land is Critical Biodiversity Area (CBA), Ecological Support Area (ESA) or in Protected Area.