Sectors

At times, South Africa faces environmental disasters common to the Southern African region, including drought, fires and floods.  Rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation has resulted in high population densities on the fringes of cities and these communities are at high risk in these situations.  These areas often have limited health facilities, poor roads, inadequate drainage systems and tend to share communal sanitary facilities.  As a result, the nature and positioning of these settlements poses a health risk if communicable diseases break out.

Within South Africa, institutional arrangements and capacities to deal with these disasters have been extremely limited in the past, and are still minimal in some parts of the country.

The focus of the Wesbank Fund’s Emergency Relief and Disaster Management Programme is to improve the skills of volunteers, enabling them to respond to disasters efficiently, effectively and timeously.

Supportive Funds