Over the past two weeks, various regions across SA have experienced severe flooding due to heavy rains.
In the Eastern and Western Cape, heavy floods have caused immeasurable damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock.
While the total cost of this damage is yet to be calculated, it is no doubt in the hundreds of millions.
Bridges and roads have collapsed, residential and commercial properties have been destroyed, agricultural land is waterlogged and animals are in distress.
It is a crisis that has necessitated the government to declare a national state of disaster.
The impact of climate change has been notable across the world for decades, but in the last few years, it has become undebatable.
Like most regions in the Global South, Southern Africa has been greatly impacted, with more frequent cycles of floods and drought conditions becoming common.
SA, already a semi-arid region, has been on the receiving end of some of the devastation, particularly in coastal regions, as evidenced by recent rains and floods.
Our situation is made worse by deteriorating stormwater infrastructure and backlogs in maintenance and the construction of new infrastructure.
But there is another factor that needs to be reflected upon, which is the direct result of our collective habits rather than the inefficiencies of the government — and that is debris accumulation impacting the functioning of culverts.
A culvert is a structural channel or pipe designed to let water flow under an obstacle, such as a road, railway, or embankment.
They act as vital drainage systems, preventing water from pooling, flooding, or eroding the travel surface above.
There are more than a million culverts in SA, in great part because of their cost-effectiveness.
Instead of building an expensive bridge for every small stream or ditch, engineers fill in the low spots and embed a culvert.
This allows water to safely pass through to the other side, ensuring effectiveness, while minimising costs associated with the construction of bridges and similar infrastructure.
While a lot of our water and stormwater infrastructure, including culverts, is ageing and in need of maintenance, there are other factors impacting it.
One of these is urban refuse.
Discarded plastics, trash, and illegally dumped items frequently wash into catch basins and culverts, blocking them.
This drastically amplifies flood risk during severe storms.
The blockages also halt the natural flow of water, causing rapid backwater flooding that affects nearby residential and commercial properties, as well as agricultural land.
Additionally, water backed up by blockages often overflows across roads.
This can scour the road surface, erode structural embankments, and cause asphalt to collapse.
Furthermore, flooded roads limit mobility, trap vehicles, and create severely dangerous driving conditions even when there are no storms.
The environmental and ecological impact is just as severe.
Blocked culverts act as physical barriers that impede the natural migration routes of aquatic organisms, reducing local genetic diversity.
In addition to this, stagnant backed-up water degrades downstream aquatic habitats, which increases localised sedimentation.
The failures of the government in maintaining and upgrading stormwater infrastructure are documented.
But ordinary people are not innocent in the problem.
Every time someone throws litter out of a moving vehicle or dumps their trash on the streets and pavements, they are contributing to the damage to culverts and the environment.
These habits, which are especially visible in our cities and towns, do more than just create pollution or make areas unsightly.
They worsen the impact of floods, directly causing damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock, and contributing to fatalities caused by floods and severe rains.
We have to take accountability for our actions and understand the harm they cause.
Failing to do so guarantees that as severe weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable and frequent, they will also become more dangerous.
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