Disaster Management Planning

The law places various onerous responsibilities on municipal engineers when it comes to disaster and risk management – and the growth of informal settlements in the context of climate change is only raising these risks.

Informal settlements still pose a real challenge for disaster management

required for this mapping may not always be readily available. He notes that the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed some weaknesses in the application of the Act. While this law had been Role of municipal engineers used to impose and enforce the lockdowns, there were legally vital in managing disaster risk specified disaster management bodies that were not functioning. “The pandemic also highlighted A ccording to Andries Fourie, senior technologist: Disaster and Risk Management at SRK Consulting, the 2015 the municipality must provide measures and indicate how it will invest in disaster risk reduction. “There is also specific reference in the Act to that there were local, metropolitan and district municipalities that were not up to speed with their disaster management plans, and had not constituted the required bodies like advisory forums,” says Fourie. amendments to the Disaster Management climate change adaptation, which is a growing Act (No. 57 of 2002) have raised the bar area of concern – especially with regard to for municipal engineers – particularly the risks faced by informal settlements,” he section of the Act dealing with disaster says. “The varying weather patterns that management plans. accompany climate change are aggravating

“Every municipality must conduct a risks like flooding; municipal engineers are disaster risk assessment and then prepare now having to plan more carefully to ensure a full disaster management plan – the that the necessary infrastructural investments implementation of which must align and are made.” coordinate with other organs of state and An important addition in the amended institutional role-players,” says Fourie. law is the element of mapping the risks;

A key part of an engineer’s role in planning this means the employment of geographic for how the municipality will respond to information systems (GIS) to gather, map and disasters is to ensure that the necessary analyse risks in a visual format. An added investment in risk reduction is made. Fourie challenge – especially in many smaller Andries Fourie, senior technologist: Disaster and Risk Management, SRK Consultingemphasises the law’s requirement that municipalities – is that the information

Proactive planning

The planning process begins with knowing what infrastructure is in place, and exactly where everything is located. This includes water, electricity, stormwater, water treatment and emergency services. This inventory then needs to be mapped, and a value attached to each aspect – a process in which SRK Consulting is regularly involved. This can be more readily done in formalised areas, but informal settlements still pose a real challenge for disaster management, he says.

“These settlements tend to have few, if any, of the formal amenities we usually associate with established areas – such as proper stormwater drains, enforced building codes, formal electrical connections to each property, and certified wiring in the houses. Even the roads are not well defined or controlled,” adds Fourie.

This generally makes for unsafe conditions, and high vulnerability to disasters. Dwellings are often close to water, so flooding and ponding are common. These dwellings are also close together, making it easier for fire to spread. A lack of road access means that, in the case of fire, the fire trucks are unlikely to be able to reach the place where they are needed and there are no fire hydrants.

Water

“Investing in disaster risk reduction also applies to water services infrastructure,” says Fourie. “Many poorly managed water treatment facilities and ageing infrastructure result in the discharging of polluted water into rivers. Once again, the informal settlements are often worse affected, as they are located close to these rivers and residents may use water directly from them.”

Fourie warns that the spreading of waterborne diseases like cholera is caused by these conditions and tends to happen quicker in communities with high-density dwellings. Poorly operated pit toilets – as well as refuse sites, unmanaged stormwater and sullage – also contaminate both surface water and groundwater.

“Efforts by municipalities to comply with the Act could go a long way in helping to address these problems – through supporting longer-term planning of infrastructure and maintenance,” adds Fourie.

“Consulting engineers and scientists can – through modelling – assist municipalities with specialised services like assessing rainfall patterns, run-off and the capacity of current stormwater facilities. Designing for a 1-in-25-year rainfall event, for instance, has very different results compared to designing for a 1-in-100-year event; the capital costs to implement the plan may often rise dramatically, so this needs to be recognised in good time from a planning point of view.”

The role of the municipal engineer is becoming increasingly important as local government adapts its disaster management plans to changing climatic conditions. Fourie emphasises the need for proactive disaster management, as the various challenges facing municipalities are often linked. The leakage of water from municipal pipe infrastructure, for instance, is not only a loss in terms of revenue and service delivery but – in some dolomite areas – also causes dangerous and costly sinkholes.