CoGTA may request residents to evacuate certain areas in KZN due to possible flooding
File Photo: Flooded home during heavy rains
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SABC News KZN Floods (Skhangiwe)
Wendy Mothata
14 November 2022, 09:22 [SAST]
Reading Time: 3minutes
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) says residents in northern KwaZulu-Natal may be requested to evacuate areas affected by possible flooding amid heavy rain conditions.
Disaster management teams remain on high alert after a weather warning was issued by the SA Weather Service.
CoGTA’s head of communications in KZN Nonala Ndlovu says, “We have issued a warning and we have also spoken to our disaster management teams in those areas to be on high alert and assist communities if anyone comes into distress so that they may be evacuated and move to safer ground.”
KZN flood victims forced to leave their homes after river burst its banks:
Video – KZN Floods | Heavy rains continue to wreak havoc in Durban:
Eastern Cape
Meanwhile, households in the O.R Tambo District Municipality have been affected yet again by torrential rainfall. The impact left scores of people homeless, while others lost their businesses.
Bridges are overflowing and cannot be used. The local municipalities of King Sabatha Dalindyebo and Nyandeni are the most affected.
Local businesses have been affected by the rain. Some plants have been washed away, and some pigs died after a piggery was flooded.
Owner of the piggery tsikayezwe Zithakele explains, “After the heavy rain yesterday, when I got to the piggery, the water was flooding the piggery as I was trying to take the pigs out. I went out when the water reached my chest. I called my neighbour to come and help. The four pigs drowned and died.”
Residents say the rain affects them badly and have called on the government to intervene.
Video – Heavy rains leave large-scale flooding mainly of agricultural land in the North West province:
North West
Heavy rains in the North West province over the past few days have seen large scale flooding, mainly of agricultural land and caused many dams to overflow.
Numerous fields are waterlogged and plants are dying due to overwatering while grain farmers are unable to plant.
Rain is a welcome blessing from above. It brings with it some spectacular views but too much rain can also become a burden for farmers such as Daan van der Merwe who farms near Groot Marico.
Daan van der Merwe who is a farmer says, “The rain that we are receiving now is abnormal for this tome of the year. Our average rainfall for November is thirty to fifty millimeters. In the catchment of Marico River, we had eighty millimeters to 200 millimeters in the past five days. So, we don’t know what is coming. If this is the start of the season, and the dams are already overflowing, perhaps we will have a very wet season.”
“The wheat on the fields is worth millions of rands and that must come in now for your cash flow. Your cash flow at the bank is exactly written to the point where you must get this harvesting to go on. So, if the rain keeps ongoing, most of the farmers, the irrigation farmers having wheat on the fields, will have cash flow problems,” added Van der Merwe.
According to another local farmer Susanna Kalcic the rain is also causing damage to the roads and service providers also struggle to access areas where their services are needed.
Another farmer, Susanna Kalcic says, “If there’s power cuts, Eskom can’t get to the proper location to fix the lines. We struggle network, signals and all of those stuff.”
Video – Farmers in North West remain anxious as rains persist:
