Cape Town - With yet another alert issued for disruptive rainfall tomorrow, the City has warned that it coincides with one of the busiest days of the week for cemeteries, while soil remained saturated from prior downpours.
As a result, it will not take a lot of rain for flooding to occur at gravesides, as the City appeals to residents to instead hold weekday burials.
The South African Weather Service issued an orange Level 5 warning for disruptive rainfall across the metro.
Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said all services will be on standby.
“Cape Town has experienced significant rainfall already this month, and so the soil and waterways in many parts of the city remain well-saturated.
“All City services will be put on standby to deal with any impacts from the forecast.
“We advise the public to please take heed of the current advisory, and to start implementing any possible mitigation measures around their properties in the interim,” Powell said.
The Western Cape has been battered by torrential rains, gale-force winds in the past few weeks, which caused significant damage to infrastructure and flooding in various parts of the province.
This led to several graveyards reporting that burials had been suspended during the week, with the City recording a record 117 burials in a weekend of catch-up.
Mayco member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross, said Saturdays remained the most popular day for burials.
“Our cemeteries are incredibly busy on weekends, and this coming weekend will be no different. Our teams are on hand to ensure that operations proceed as smoothly as possible under the circumstances, but if the forecast holds, there will likely be an impact. Cape Town has experienced a lot of rainfall this month, so the soil remains very saturated.
“As we’ve indicated before, this could affect grave depths or reopening of existing graves for second burials, resulting in delays or even force the use of an alternate grave. I also want to call on funeralgoers to please try and expedite burials, so that we can manage traffic in and out of the cemeteries, but also limit people’s exposure to conditions underfoot,” said Van der Ross.
Meanwhile, burials were also suspended in the Drakenstein municipal area, and was later reopened after assessment.
Cape Argus