KZN floods among top 10 costliest climate disasters of 2022

A report by global charity organisation Christian Aid has listed last year’s floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape as one of the top 10 costliest extreme events influenced by the climate crisis.

In KZN alone, thousands of families were displaced by the heavy torrential rains in the province in April and May, which also resulted in the loss of more than 445 lives and billions of rands’ worth of damage to infrastructure.

The study estimates the damage of the floods in South Africa at $3b (R51b).

Most of these estimates are based on insured losses, meaning the true financial costs are likely to be even higher, while the human costs are often uncounted, explained the organisation.

Among the top natural disasters are Hurricane Ian, which struck the US and Cuba in September, costing $100b and displacing 40 000 people, and the devastating floods in Pakistan, which killed more than 1 700 people, displaced a further 7 million, and according to World Bank estimates, caused $30b in economic damage.

“No corner of the globe was spared from the costliest climate impacts,” says Christian Aid CEO Patrick Watt.

“Having ten separate climate disasters in the last year, which each cost more than $3b, points to the financial cost of inaction on the climate crisis. But behind the dollar figures lie millions of stories of human loss and suffering. Without major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, this human and financial toll will only increase.

“The human cost of climate change is seen in the homes washed away by floods, loved ones killed by storms, and livelihoods destroyed by drought. [2022] was a devastating one if you happened to live on the front line of the climate crisis. Some of these catastrophes hit with blinding speed; others unfolded – such as the terrible drought in East Africa – over many months,” he says.