Editorial: The irony of a "fire fighting" approach towards natural hazards in South Africa: lessons from flooding disaster in Kwazulu-Natal

Abstract

The continuous distraction of rural livelihood activities, loss of lives and the displacement of large numbers of rural populations has brought about the question of the applicability of risk and disaster mitigation and management approach implementation in most developing countries in Southern Africa. The fact that floods are still causing a huge impact every year in Mozambique, Malawi and even South Africa, for example, explains the inadequacy in terms of the ability of these countries to deal with natural hazards. Recently, in April 2022, South Africa experienced one of the most devastating flooding disasters which led to the death of more than 400 people. The common explanation of disaster is that its impact causes human, material, economic and environmental losses in such a way that it exceeds the ability of the affected communities to cope using their own resources. In other words, if the communities which are affected by a natural event have the ability to independently cope with the aftermath of a hazard, such an event would not be regarded as a disaster.