The country has experienced heavy rains in recent months which resulted in unfortunate incidents of flooding. We have witnessed the misery and suffering of communities whose households were destroyed or washed away, and there was also loss of lives due to the floods.

This added more sorrow the most vulnerable communities who are still battling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. The affected communities also include informal settlements of people desperately looking for shelter.

Even with that in mind, it is wrong for people to erect shelters or build structures in areas that the municipality has demarcated or reserved to discharge the base flood. It is also illegal to erect structures on weirs belonging to the department of water and sanitation.

A weir is meant to allow for overflow when the dam reaches its full capacity. Building on land prone to flooding or meant to mitigate such a flood, is high risk because climate-related disasters happen inadvertently.

Therefore, it is of importance that we look back at what happened during the flooding and refrain from committing the same error of illegally building structures on either the flood base or dam weirs. Some of the informal settlements are built on wetlands, causing interference with nature and the river health system. This is illegal, irrational, and irresponsible.

These challenges can be mitigated through improved management of infrastructure by the municipalities, especially storm water drains, as well as enforcing by-laws relating to illegal settlements on municipal land.

In most cases, residents of these flood-prone areas are among the poorest and most vulnerable. It is therefore advisable for people who erect settlement structures to first check with their municipalities regarding the legality or feasibility of the land they want to occupy prior to them settling there.

Marcus Monyakeni, department of water and sanitation