Kimberley - Kimberley residents have pointed fingers at the Sol Plaatje Municipality for much of the damage sustained in this week’s massive cloudburst, which wreaked havoc in the city.
Residents in Colville, Greenpoint and Kagisho spent much of on Wednesday mopping up after more than 100mm of rain fell in some parts of the city on Tuesday, causing substantial damage to homes and belongings.
Many of the residents on Wednesday blamed the municipality for not maintaining and cleaning blocked stormwater canals, which are designed to carry the water away from properties.
A Colville resident, Audrey Peters, said the overflowing water from a nearby stormwater canal flooded her shanty.
“My daughter and her boyfriend were at home with their one-year-old child. The water burst through from the canal and flooded the front of the shanty. The wind was also blowing strongly and one of the roof rafters caved in. The entire shanty came crashing down,” said Peters.
She added that her daughter’s boyfriend hurt his back when he tried to keep the metal sheets of the shanty from falling on her daughter and grandchild.
“They managed to crawl safely out from under the shanty.”
All her furniture and belongings were soaked and important documents, such as identity documents and the birth certificates of the children, were washed away by the torrent of water.
The family were forced to find alternative accommodation with family and friends.
I had to take the day off from work to sort this mess out and really don’t know where to start,” Peters said.
She blamed the municipality for the damage caused to her home and property.
“The canal overflowed because it was blocked, resulting in the water rushing into our homes.”
Another resident in Colville, who is reliant on an oxygen tank, said he had to switch to his emergency tank when the water gushed into his property.
“The water was streaming into the house from under the door. My oxygen machine and the electrical extension cord were getting wet. Fortunately I have an emergency oxygen tank, for standby use, although the oxygen runs out quickly and I have to switch it on and off many times.”
At another house, a wall collapsed after a tent caved in.
Gloria Lewis said they had erected the tent in preparation for a vigil and funeral at their house.
“The rain was so heavy that the water collected on the top of the tent, causing it to cave in. The wooden poles holding the tent could no longer hold the weight and gave way, bringing the wall down as well.
“Fortunately no one was hurt because the storm hit before the vigil started, otherwise there would have been many people inside the tent when it collapsed.”
Another Colville resident counted herself lucky not to have been hurt when a tree fell on her house.
Juliana America said the tree had been standing in the front of her house for several years.
“At around 4pm, when it started raining heavily, I heard a loud noise on the roof of the house. I was alone with the children and saw the water coming into the house through the roof. When I looked through the window I saw the wind had pulled the tree out of the ground.
“You could even see the roots of the tree and the underground electrical wires.
Greenpoint residents said they too were tired of asking the municipality to fix the stormwater canal which they blamed for the flooding of their homes.
The walls of the canal collapsed in November last year during heavy rains and were rebuilt by the municipality.
On Tuesday, several sections of the canal broke once again, leading to the flooding of several houses and shanties.
A resident, Verushka Visagie, said they had still not received any feedback from the municipality regarding their insurance claims for the November storm.
“Three months ago the municipality made us fill in forms to claim for our furniture and belongings that were damaged during the last storm. We are still waiting for a response and now the same thing has happened. Nobody from the municipality came this time to assess the damage,” Visagie said.
She added that a child almost drowned when the canal overflowed.
“A child fell into the canal . . . one could only see his little hand in the air as he screamed for help. Luckily there were some community members around to pull him out of the water. This could have been a terrible tragedy.”
Some community members dragged their belongings and furniture outside to dry, among them Melissa Visagie.
“Everything inside my shanty got wet when the water came gushing in from under the door. This was again caused by the canal walls collapsing. I had to spend the night at family as I couldn’t stay inside my shanty,” she said.
Residents in Kagisho took their anger further by barricading the road, saying that they were tired of constantly being under water when it rained.
Martha Monoketsi said this was the third time her home was flooded after heavy rains.
“The problem is not the roof but rather the water that overflows from the Kagisho Dam. The municipality opens the reservoir in town and the water comes flowing into the dam, causing it to overflow.
“The damage is caused by the dam overflowing, not the rain,” said Monoketsi.
She said the municipality had promised the residents in the area new houses.
“In 2011 the municipality promised that they would give us better houses if we relocated. We then asked them where we were supposed to stay while they were building the houses and they never answered us. We cannot just move if we don’t know where we will be staying while our houses are being built.”
The Sol Plaatje Municipality said they were busy assessing the damage caused by the cloudburst.
Municipal spokesman, Sello Matsie, said they were busy with mop-up operations.
“We are looking at the matter of supporting the affected areas to normalise the situation and already early this morning a team had commenced with inspections,” Matsie said.
Diamond Fields Advertiser