Professor Emeritus of Hydrology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Water Resources Research argues that not just heavy rain and climate change were responsible for the devastation in Durban and other provincial areas.

Given the devastating impact of the "rainbombs" that struck Durban and other parts of the KwaZulu-Natal coast in April and May, it's no surprise that several commentators have described the recent floods as the worst in living memory -- and also linked them to the global climate crisis.

Yet, contrary to popular perception, detailed historical analysis suggests that the KZN coastline has experienced many similar events over the past 170 years -- some of them significantly worse in terms of the volume or intensity of rainfall (see historical details further below).

While the jury is still out on the extent to which the April/May 2022 weather events were driven by human-induced climate change, one of South Africa's most senior hydrology researchers suggests that it is equally important to interrogate and address the wide variety of "human factors" that aggravated the severity and human death toll of the most recent floods.

Roland Schulze, Professor Emeritus of Hydrology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Water Resources Research,...