South Africa's increased rainfall has led to major floods and the death toll is rising every day. The President of South Africa believes that the country can expect more such storms as a result of the climate crisis.
Since last week, the province of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal has been hit by months of rainfall in a few days. The rain has led to major floods which has caused the infrastructure in the region to completely collapse in some places. Many municipalities in the area are completely without electricity and with roads that have collapsed. The local government in the province has asked for emergency aid from religious communities and the South African National Defense Forces as the rainfall continued throughout last week.
Since the storm Issa pulled in over KwaZulu-Natal province has figures of over 300 dead could be confirmed. Many of the dead have been trapped under buildings or in mudslides. Even more residents in the province are now without housing. Some of those affected in the area call the storm the force of nature, while others believe that the death toll could have been less if the area had better infrastructure in the form of sewers.
The storm is a sign of the climate crisis
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, said during his visit to the affected province that the storm is proof that the climate crisis is real. Also meteorologists from the country's weather service, SAWS, points out climate change.
- We can state that globally, as a result of global warming and climate change, all extreme weather is becoming more common… And will become even more common and more extreme than it has been before, they say.