Khayelitsha flood victims receive starter kits to rebuild homes
Residents are in a race against time to rebuild their lives before another cold front is expected to make landfall in the coming days.
Building material was distributed to flood victims in Khayelitsha, Cape Town on 17 JUly 2024. Picture: Melikhaya Zagagana/EWN
CAPE TOWN - Over 2,000 flood victims in Khayelitsha received building material on Wednesday after their homes were destroyed in the recent storms.
Several thousand residents have been living in a local shelter following the downpours.
On Wednesday, many hope to receive starter kits to start rebuilding their dwellings.
Long queues formed outside Luleka Primary School in Harare, where recent disaster victims wait to receive kits to begin rebuilding their homes.
The distribution of the building material to the flood victims is taking place at Luleka Primary School in Harare. pic.twitter.com/FpY3L39pfz
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) July 17, 2024
The Councillor of Ward 99 Lonwabo Mqina says only three hundred people will be able to get building material today, and that Yesterday they distributed material to 150 victims of floods. pic.twitter.com/95wIGryI42
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) July 17, 2024
Khayelitsha ward 99 councillor, Lonwabo Mqina, said that only 300 flood victims would receive building material on Wednesday.
He said that about 159 people were assisted on Tuesday.
"If these people here are not all assisted today, but we are still going to continue, even tomorrow, until most of them, in fact, all of them that are on the list are sorted."
Residents are in a race against time to rebuild their lives before another cold front is expected to make landfall in the coming days.
Mqina also said that the City of Cape Town had identified land that government could buy to relocate informal settlements from low-lying wetlands.
Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa highlighted the problem following devastating storms that severely impacted more than 100,000 people and over 30,000 homes in the city.
He said that there were talks between the metro and national government to find a lasting solution.
"So there are ongoing discussions and we, as well as community leaders, are identifying like open spaces here within the ward, so we that we can be able to relocate people within the community to an area that is high up, so that they don’t experience these floods when they happen again."