Assessing the effectiveness of housing reconstruction and rehabilitation measures for disaster affected communities in KZN (uThukela District Municipality)

Abstract

South Africa is experiencing the realities of climate change with the increasing intensity of disasters causing devastating impact to infrastructure, houses, roads and schools. Post disaster housing rehabilitation and reconstruction is one of the most challenging tasks confronting decision makers and disaster management practitioners in disaster affected areas and remains an under studied area. This triggered the interest of the researcher to understand the impact of the phenomenon and how communities recover from disasters. The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of housing reconstruction and rehabilitation measures for disaster affected communities in KZN. The location of the study was Tholeni area in Alfred Duma Local Municipality, within uThukela District Municipality, because this area is highly vulnerable to natural hazards. This study used the philosophical worldview of pragmatism; a mixed research approach to solicit views, experiences and perspectives of affected communities, Disaster Management Practitioners and officials from Department of Human Settlements was used. Data was obtained through questionnaires and interviews. In order to achieve this, purposive sampling method was used as it helped to purposely select disaster management practitioners and officials from the Department of Human Settlements who could provide sufficient data for the purposes of completing the study. Descriptive statistical and content analysis was conducted from the analysis of emergent data. The qualitative results were triangulated to further test validity of empirical results. Data collected was computed by means of excel spread sheets and results were presented in the form of bar graphs, tables with descriptive analysis. The findings of the study showed that the affected communities were not satisfied with housing assistance post-disaster incidents. The findings sited that assistance takes longer and in some instance does not reach all affected communities. The other finding from affected communities was that government does not provide feedback to give an update of post disaster interventions. Findings from disaster management practitioners highlighted capacity constraints, poor planning, inadequate budget, and lack of close monitoring, which have a direct effect on delivery of houses post-disaster incidents. Findings from officials from the Department of Human Settlements sited long processes of verification of damages by National Disaster Management Centre and delays with approvals of disaster funding allocation by National Treasury which affects effective delivery of post-disaster housing. The other finding was the issue of inadequate internal budget and low level of preparedness by the Department of Human Settlements. The shortcomings were evident, including the existence of plans and policies exclusive of post-disaster housing information and linked to poor monitoring and coordination of projects by the Department of Human Settlements. The study proposed a guiding framework for post-disaster housing rehabilitation and reconstruction and also offered a number of recommendations that can assist the Department of Human Settlements and Municipalities to enhance disaster response and recovery. This includes recommendations to develop or review post-disaster housing policy in order to address some of the challenges which emerged from the study. The Department of Human Settlements, working with municipalities, should prioritise the land tenure security for affected communities in order to fast track post-disaster housing interventions.