City spends R3 million on relief provision to residents affected by floods

The City of Cape Town has spent approximately R3 million on providing social relief to 18 000 residents across the city affected by the floods experienced over the weekend. Read more below:

I would like to extend my deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones as a result of the flooding experienced throughout the city this weekend. I would also like to extend my sympathies to those who lost their belongings over the last few days.

The City of Cape Town is using all of the resources at its disposal to provide much needed relief to residents who have been adversely affected by this weekend's floods as part of our commitment to building a safe and caring city.

To date, the City has spent approximately R3 million on providing social relief to 18 000 residents across the city who were affected by heavy rains between Friday and Saturday. The City's proactive planning in anticipation of the unprecedented rain experienced over the weekend has helped to mitigate the damage caused by the floods.

Ahead of the time, the City's Disaster Risk Management Centre deployed its resources close to areas that they identified as likely to be worst affected by the rains last week Friday. This enabled them to respond promptly to requests for assistance.

However, the magnitude of the floods and our stretched resources meant that we were not always able to assist all residents as quickly as we wanted to.

To this end, we are grateful to all residents and community organisations who offered their assistance under very difficult conditions to ensure that we provided social relief to as many affected residents as practically possible.

We are currently assessing the extent of the damages on municipal infrastructure to establish the financial impact.

I encourage all those who are interested in donating towards relief efforts to please contact the City's Disaster Relief Management Centre on 080 911 4357. Alternatively, they can deliver their contributions to any of the City's 30 fire stations.

I want to reassure all Capetonians that the City is doing its best to provide timeous social relief to all those who need it. We also initiated extraordinary interventions to restore services that were disrupted as quickly as possible to ensure continued access to basic services.

I want to thank the City's Disaster Risk Management team, the National Sea Rescue Institute, NGOs, businesses and community members who went out of their way to help those affected to rebuild their lives. Their selfless actions embody our commitment to building a caring city that assists vulnerable residents during their hour of need.

Statement issued by Patricia de Lille, Executive Mayor of Cape Town, November 18 2013

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