Widespread flooding has devastated large parts of northern and eastern Limpopo and Mpumalanga, as well as southern Mozambique. It has also left managers at the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa’s premier wildlife tourism attraction, with the huge challenge of how to cope with these increasingly frequent disasters.
The January floods — in some cases water reached the highest recorded levels — destroyed tourist accommodation, roads, bridges and other infrastructure in KNP and private reserves on its western boundary. Many camps and lodges had to be closed.
Wildlife tourism is the economic linchpin of the Lowveld and an important generator of job creation. Millions live within 50km of the KNP boundaries, in areas that have high levels of unemployment.
“We have to build back better, we must learn from the past and perhaps build differently,” says Kaitano Dube, professor of tourism geography at the Vaal University of Technology. “We may need to move some camps, or consider elevating some buildings, and though this may seem simplistic, we have to plan for changing circumstances.”
Many of the camps in Kruger were built more than 70 years ago in locations that have now become prone to increasingly severe flooding, related to climate change.
“The concern is that higher-order tropical cyclones are increasing in the region and will occur more frequently,” Dube tells the FM. “The intensity of flooding may also increase, and we have to plan for that to try to improve resilience.”
One way to cope with this, says Dube, is to develop “robust early-warning systems”. To some extent this has been done, which helped to ensure there was no loss of life within KNP during the January 2026 flooding.
“KNP has early-warning systems in place and officials took them seriously and reduced the risk of deaths by evacuating people early,” says Dube. “There was to a large extent nothing that could be done to prevent the rivers flooding because of the highly unusual circumstances of the cut-off low-pressure weather system, which was trapped over the region, delivering massive amounts of rain.”
All the major rivers that run through KNP rise to the west of the park and flow through areas that are not protected in terms of conservation. Poor farming practices, increasing human settlements and other factors contribute to rapid and increased flooding.
“Conservation officials do meet traditional leaders, farmers and government representatives to discuss these matters, but there are many competing issues,” says Dube. “Communities live in some flood plains, there is extensive urban development, and other factors, all of which lead to increased runoff.
“Within KNP we have to rethink threats and strengthen our early-warning systems, but conservation officials have limited influence on how land use is managed outside the park.”
Though no lives were lost within KNP, an estimated 40 people died in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Authorities reported more than 140 deaths in Mozambique, downstream of all the major rivers that flow through KNP. Entire villages have been flooded there and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates more than 600,000 people have been forced to flee the floodwaters. The floods in Mozambique have destroyed roads, bridges, schools and homes; the damage is estimated to run into billions.
Damage within KNP has not yet been fully assessed, but early estimates were that it would be at least R500m. South African National Parks (SANParks) has committed to establishing the Kruger Relief Fund to help with rebuilding efforts, emergency supplies and other necessities
Willie Aucamp, the minister of fisheries, forestry & the environment, says that between January 9 and 19 (during the flooding), KNP recorded 24,073 guest entries, a 41% decline against the same period in 2025.
“There is no doubt that the park faces immediate to medium-term revenue loss as a result. I must also indicate that SANParks is an entity that generates close to 80% of its operating budget, therefore the destruction of its tourism flagship puts the sustainability of the entire network of parks at risk,” Aucamp says.
“KNP is not just a conservation landscape. It is an economic lifeline for the region, a symbol of our national heritage and a globally recognised conservation asset.”
In a 2023 study, Dube and co-authors Godwell Nhamo, David Chikodzi and Lazarus Chapungu worked with SANParks to develop climate-change assessments for 19 parks. They noted that climate change has “worsened the frequency and occurrence of flood hazards worldwide, with costs escalating annually”.
“This has the consequence of escalating costs for conservation and park management,” they said in their paper, Mapping and Evaluating the Impact of Flood Hazards on Tourism in South African National Parks.
“The capacity of the parks to keep up with these increasing costs at a time when the government is cutting budgets amid scant revenue from tourism activities is a significant worry,” they said.
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