Riverlands residents in Swartland have formed their own local disaster structure in a bid to accelerate flood assessment efforts and ensure rebuilding and repairs of households was not prolonged.
About 128 residents have been displaced, 14 people were transported to Swartland Hospital with minor injuries and 444 people had to receive humanitarian aid after dams located on property known as Dassenberg breached on August 8, resulting in severe flooding to parts of the area.
A flash flood was then experienced on Saturday, coming from the fourth dam on the Dassenberg farm which belongs to the national government.
The Swartland Municipality blamed the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), saying it was their “so-called” work which was conducted despite a request not to further intervene with the dam.
Residents said that their disaster structure was established to ensure transparency, accountability and quick flow of communication as no time frame had been given regarding families currently housed at Riverlands Community Bakery Centre and Riverlands Church.
DWS acting spokesperson Andile Tshona said what was important was the dam being emptied and this was done by means of a side channel spillway to prevent a more catastrophic collapse of the dam wall.
“The department established that there was a progressing piping failure (on the downstream slope) at the highest section of the dam wall during an inspection on August 12. The integrity of the dam was compromised and hence the possibility of failure was detected. Subsequently, the decision was taken to empty the dam to protect the lives of the community members living downstream.
“The emptying of the dam through the spillway was planned to drain the dam during daytime from 10am to 4pm to ensure that the increased outflow from the dam would occur during daylight, to enable it to be managed more easily. Should Dam 4 have failed late in the evening or early morning hours while the public downstream was asleep, the consequences could have been far worse.
“Dam 4 emptied faster than anticipated, the members of the public who were evacuated have returned to their homes,” said Tshona.
The department insisted that the dam wall of Dam 4 had not failed and “very little” additional damage was caused by the release of water.
“The damage to infrastructure was caused by the floods of the dam breaks of the previous three dams,” said Tshona.
However, Swartland community activist Marlon Truster, who also has an engineering degree, said when the spillway was created it was done right against the dam wall.
“Judging by the pictures of the wall, which I was privy to see, the excavation should have been done at least 15 to 20m away from the wall.
The flash flood was caused by the way the spillway was created.
“We are looking forward to the DWS report, but I am also conducting an investigation report about these two incidents and will soon make them public. People need to be taken to task,” he said.
Resident Donovan Manuel said they had started a community structure to assist with assessments.
“I am one of the people who lost their home due to the flood and my friend took me in to temporarily live with him.”
However, in the day I go to the church where other affected residents live in order to get the food provided. There has been no communication yet about anything that has to do with being assisted to rebuild our homes or repair them.
We don’t want to live like this for a long time, getting time frames will assist us. Now that we have formed this disaster structure we will be able to be part of some official meetings and inform our people about all the plans, including contingency plans.
“We have started assessments which will be submitted to the Human Settlements Department. The Department of Agriculture also visited today because some people had livestock and some were commercial farmers. Now the challenge is that their documents as proof are required, but they don’t have them as many lost their IDs.
We are hoping this is also resolved soon,” said Manuel.
Swartland Municipality spokesperson Mart-Marié Haasbroek said their community development department was working with Sassa and the Department of Home Affairs to assist residents who had lost all essential paperwork.
She said they were working with the national Department of Human Settlements to resettle and reintegrate residents into the community.
Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi dispatched an Emergency Housing team to intervene and assist displaced families.
She said ongoing assessment would inform interventions required for all the affected households.
“There are four categories of interventions provided by the department. These include restoration, relocation, rebuilding and repairs,” she said.
The ministry did not respond to questions about rebuilding by deadline on Monday.
Cape Times