The ANC is considering setting up departments or units in municipalities to deal with potholes and stormwater drainage systems to deal with the challenges of climate change to avoid floods.
ANC national executive committee member Dakota Legoete said the issue of potholes was becoming a problem in the country.
The same applied with the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal where poor stormwater drainage systems were blamed for failing to contain gushing water.
Many municipalities have been blamed for having too many potholes.
But some of the national and provincial roads have potholes littered across the road network.
Legoete said they need new units or departments that would intervene on potholes and stormwater drainage systems because of the current challenges.
“With climate change it is becoming clear in some of the municipalities we are going to need new departments that will deal with potholes and stormwater intervention units.
“For instance let’s say in one municipality climate change and the problems of floods, it is becoming clear that despite the current roads department that we have you will still need to bring a new department or unit that will make an intervention in terms of potholes as part of mitigation against new challenges and prioritise that we have in our municipalities. It’s a matter that we would have to work on,” said Legoete.
But ANC head of economic transformation Mmamoloko Kubayi said the issue of managing disasters was not about starting new departments.
She said Legoete was emphasising the point that disasters were bringing new complexities in the current challenges.
She said if you look at floods in KwaZulu-Natal it was clear that the stormwater drainage system was not designed to meet climate change.
With the changing environment there has to be a change in the spatial design of municipalities to meet new challenges.
The world has moved on from past designs, and modern designs are developing to meet the demands of climate change.
Kubayi said towns must be redeveloped to meet the current challenges.
Political Bureau