The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre, along with the South African Weather Services (SAWS), community leaders and other role players, held a two-day workshop to brainstorm ideas on how to get warnings for extreme weather events to the people who are most at risk of being affected by them.
‘The purpose of the workshop was to brainstorm ideas on how to get warnings for extreme weather events to the people who are most at risk of being affected by them. We need to develop an effective communication chain which can be used in Ocean View and Masiphumelele, and possibly elsewhere, where warnings sent by the SAWS can easily reach households in the community.
‘The system will also allow for feedback and for it to be successful we need to engage the very communities where it is needed,’ said the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith, who attended the first day of the workshop.
The South African Weather Service in partnership with the National Disaster Management Centre, City of Cape Town’s Disaster Management Centre as well as the United Kingdom Meteorological Office, were part of the Impact-Based Severe Weather Warning Community Outreach Workshop which took place in Fishhoek.
This workshop will assist in determining a suitable method for ensuring weather warnings reach the Ocean View and Masiphumelele communities in a timely manner so that necessary actions can be taken by residents to move out of harms’ way.
‘Vulnerable communities are hardest hit during extreme weather events and natural disasters. The impact is far-reaching and can lead to a myriad of secondary problems such as injury, damage to property and homelessness. Getting warnings to residents faster can minimise those potential problems.
‘With initiatives like this workshop we are helping communities build resilience and facilitate community participation through training, preparedness planning and awareness-raising activities and programmes,’ added Alderman Smith.
More than 36 community leaders and residents attended the workshop. Learnings from the two-day event will be collated and used to develop a communication chain which could be rolled out to other communities.