‘When the water came down, you could see the trauma and children becoming hysterical and the chaos… as people evacuated their homes, screaming,” says Gift of the Givers spokesperson Ali Sablay.
On Saturday, the Swartland Municipality was forced to evacuate Riverlands residents again following work that the Department of Water and Sanitation was doing at the fourth dam which resulted in a flash flood. The water came down a spillway created by the department to minimise the risk of flooding.
The municipality blames the work the department was doing at the fourth dam on Dassenberg Farm, which belongs to the national government. It says it told the department not to intervene further with the dam because the situation had been stabilised.
On Thursday, 8 August 2024, the wall of one of the dams on Dassenberg breached, affecting two neighbouring dams and resulted in severe flooding to parts of Riverlands, Chatsworth and Dassenberg, outside Malmesbury.
“The municipality’s proposal was to leave the fourth dam and do any necessary work in the summer, when drier conditions will have worked in our favour,” the municipality said. The department specialists on site, however, had decided to lower the dam level further via the newly dug spillway, which triggered the unexpectedly fast release of water, “resulting in the coming down of the river once again, following the path it carved last week”.
The aftermath in Riverlands following another dam burst. (Photo: Wesley Fester)
Gift of the Givers remains on-site to help residents. (Photo: Gift of the Givers.)
However, acting department spokesperson Andile Tshona told Daily Maverick a number of parties, including the Swartland Municipality and the City of Cape Town, had been in discussions to minimise the risks of the fourth dam levels.
“There is nothing that we are doing there alone. We are working with the municipality, the City of Cape Town and the provincial government. We are there as a regulator to ensure that the dams are safe. We have joint meetings that sit every day at 11 o’clock with the municipality and we also advise so all the implementations are discussed at the meeting,” Tshona said.
Read more: 14 people in hospital and 444 receiving humanitarian aid after three dams collapse in Western Cape
According to the department, the fourth dam has now been depleted and no longer presents a danger. However, residents are advised to remain cautious around rivers and streams, particularly during rainfall, since water will still flow through these areas, albeit with reduced intensity.
Gift of the Givers is helping Riverlands residents who lost their belongings in flooding from the fourth dam. (Photo: Gift of the Givers.)
The devastation in Riverlands after the dams burst. (Photo: Gift of the Givers.)
No injuries or deaths were reported during yesterday’s incident, and some residents have returned to their homes. Several residents are being treated for shock at the Riverland Clinic. In the latest update, on 18 August, the Swartland Municipality is caring for 128 residents spread across two community centres where they are receiving food, shelter, clothing and other aid.
The municipality’s community development department has also been working with the South African Social Security Agency and the Department of Home Affairs to help residents who have lost essential paperwork.
Gift of the Givers is still on site providing food and humanitarian aid and is expected to be there for the next few days, said Sablay.
The Lucky Lucy Foundation, which has been helping Riverlands residents and their pets, said: “Yesterday’s floods destroyed kennels that were distributed last week. It is heartbreaking. The community is really struggling and it is a poor community, there are so many families that lost everything.” DM
Daily Maverick
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