By Siyabonga Goni.
File Photo.
Fourteen people are in hospital, 444 are receiving humanitarian support and 224 people are being housed at a local church and a community centre after three dams collapsed, flooding and destroying a number of homes near Malmesbury and leaving the area of Riverlands without potable water.
On Thursday, 08 August 2024, the wall of one of the dams on a property known as Dassenberg breached, affecting two neighbouring dams and resulting in severe flooding to parts of Riverlands, Chatsworth and Dassenberg, outside Malmesbury.
Heinrich Robertson, communications manager for the West Coast District Municipality, said three of four dams located on the Dassenberg property were compromised when the wall of one was breached.
The Swartland Municipality in partnership with West Coast Disaster Management Centre investigated the cause of the dam collapse. “It was discovered that the third dam initiated the breach, resulting in the first and second dam being overwhelmed, resulting in the extensive and devastating floods affecting Riverlands,” the Municipality said.
Fourteen people are being treated in hospitalised, while 444 people are receiving humanitarian support and 224 people are being housed at a local church and a Thusong service centre. The Riverlands town is without potable water, and the Swartland and Drakenstein Municipality will temporarily provide water to the community until water supply is restored.
Living in fear
Jessica Solomons, a Riverlands resident who was affected by the floods, struggled to find words as she recalled how her home was damaged and father’s home was destroyed.
“I was crying yesterday when they [her father’s family] called for us for help and we walked through the water to reach them and they had to open their back door so the water could flow through the front door that was torn down by the water to the outside.”
After more rain last night, Solomons said they are living in fear as the water rises. “We are not satisfied because there is another dam that is full. We live in fear because the dam can also collapse and the water can come out to affect us.”
Solomons told Daily Maverick that she lost her son to the dams two years ago. “It was a hot summer day on 13 January 2022. My son and some boys and girls were going to the dams to swim there, and on that day he never came out and they took him out the next day,” Solomons said.
Humanitarian relief organisation Gift of the Givers, which was called by the Swartland Municipality and local disaster management team in the early hours of Thursday morning to provide assistance in evacuating people and suppling aid, is still on the site and will remain there for the next week.
“We [are] going to be here for the next seven days; there is a need for clean drinking water, so we have already called on two water tanks from the Eastern Cape to come and assist here, “Gift of the Givers spokesperson Ali Sablay said.