South Africa's Minister of Human Settlements, Thembi Simelane, has called for disaster-risk assessments to be completed before land is purchased and housing projects approved, warning that building first and assessing later leaves families exposed.
Speaking at an engagement marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, Simelane said assessments should weigh natural hazards, climate projections, drainage and fire access, as well as the long-term cost of infrastructure in risky locations.
The minister said national government should support municipalities that lack planning and engineering capacity, so that risk checks are carried out properly rather than treated as paperwork after a project has already been approved.
The call follows years of damaging floods and shack fires in South Africa that have repeatedly destroyed homes built on floodplains and other hazard-prone land, displacing the very households housing programmes are meant to serve.
