BS Ngcamu, Dr. N Dorasamy - Disaster Management Institute South ...

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their houses in both Foreman and Kennedy Road informal settlements. The association between thevariables is not significant at the 95% level (p>0.05). The cross-tabulation in Table 4 indicates thatthere is a significant relationship between timber (building material) and protection from fires at the95% level (p
trained and there are delays in halting fires because of inefficiency and ineffectiveness from themunicipal officials.The ward councillor mentioned that the sprawling and congested nature of the informal settlementsmade it difficult and impractical to connect a water pipe to extinguish fires. The municipalityembarked on a plan to provide residents with metal to build shelters in order to prevent fires inplaces such as Jadhu and Foreman Road and have constructed 150 such units. The councilloralluded that a link has been established with the committee members who telephones the firedepartment directly. Such a link ensures that there is a quick response from the fire department toextinguish fires in the informal settlements. The councillor stated that, during windy days, fires areuncontrollable and there are no measures in place to control them. Formal houses cannot be built inthese shack settlements, as the municipality is bound by housing regulations which stipulate that alarger space is needed for one house. Moreover, some of the land occupied by the shacks (ForemanRoad) is privately owned.The ward councillor stated that, in protecting informal settlements from flooding, the council hasrelocated people who were living along the catchments of the river. There is little evidence that adisaster management framework, disaster management centre and a plan exist in the municipality todeal with emergencies such as fires. The municipality concerned has been prone to emergencies anddisasters in the past 10 years. Unfortunately, the work of the municipality is hampered by theabsence of a well established disaster management framework, policy and the plan, despite, section42(1) of the <strong>Disaster</strong> <strong>Management</strong> Act 57 of 2002 which stipulates that each metropolitan and eachdistrict municipality must establish and implement a framework for disaster management in themunicipality to ensure an integrated and uniform approach to disaster management in its area.The present deputy city manager (B. Mkhize, personal communication, 2009) confirmed that thedisaster management department, in its present form, is inappropriate as its sole function is tosupply blankets and food parcels after an emergency or a disaster. According to the deputy citymanager the following developments relating to disaster managment are in progress:• Relocation of the disaster management centre from the Central Business District (CBD) ofDurban as it is located on the floodplain to high-lying area; and• Designing an organogram of the department was still in progress and the appointment ofdifferent specialists such a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) specialist was beingconsidered.21
Page 1 and 2: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS BY LOCAL GOVE
Page 3 and 4: minimized through enhancing the nat
Page 5 and 6: indicates that tacit (indigenous) k
Page 7 and 8: dealing with the implementation of
Page 9 and 10: warnings, including precautionary m
Page 11 and 12: The Disaster Management Act of 2002
Page 13 and 14: In addition, Section 43 of the Muni
Page 15 and 16: Measuring instrumentsResearch proce
Page 17 and 18: PercentagesFigure 3:Kinds of disast
Page 19: Table 3: Relationship between prote
Page 23 and 24: DISCUSSIONBased on the results of t
Page 25 and 26: 147.Bullock, J. A. and Perry, G.D.
Page 27 and 28: Republic of South Africa. 1997. Whi

BS Ngcamu, Dr. N Dorasamy - Disaster Management Institute South ...

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