How South Africa can move away from a 'firefighting' approach to natural disasters

While hazards may be natural in origin, it is the way in which societies have developed that causes them to become disasters. Key to effective disaster risk reduction is driving down prevailing vulnerability conditions through ongoing development programmes rather than mounting a major response only once a crisis has struck. The HSRC's Dr Thanyani Madzivhandila outlines lessons from the KwaZulu-Natal floods that can inform future disaster reduction strategies.