Agri SA: State of disaster must accelerate flood relief funding, infrastructure rebuilding
Agri SA has welcomed the declaration of a state of disaster to address the damage caused by floods in the seven of the nine country’s provinces.
Government declared a national state of disaster on Monday to enable an intensive, coordinated response to the impact of floods affecting the seven provinces, mainly on the east coast of the country.
The affected provinces namely are the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Free State, and North West Provinces.
Agri SA's Andrea Campher says the recent floods have damaged the farmers produce, property and livelihoods.
“As farmers face untold damage to their produce, property and livelihoods, the declaration must be followed by the deployment of resources to provide relief to farmers and rebuild critical infrastructure damaged by the floods. In addition to damaging private property, the floods have destroyed critical infrastructure.”
Campher adds that the farming sector has called on the Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to put measures in place to ensure the deployment of relief funding in a transparent and accountable manner.
“We trust that the national disaster management centre and the auditor-general’s office will play their role in this regard. Agri SA will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates to members through our collaboration with the NDMC.
“We encourage farmers to complete the impact assessments provided by the respective provincial disaster management centres to account for the damages suffered due to inclement weather.”
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