Cape Town - About 6 500 people across the Cape Flats were affected as severe weather conditions hit the City leaving homes in some informal settlements flooded.
Close to 1 600 families in Khayelitsha, Philippi and Gugulethu experienced flooding of their homes while in Sweet Homes informal settlement residents donned plastic sheets as they braved heavy downpours while fighting a losing battle using buckets, basins and spades to keep the water out of their houses.
In Barcelona, in Gugulethu, residents had to navigate their way through water-logged streets Some people lit fires to keep warm.
“At this stage 1 600 dwellings and 6 500 residents have been affected,” City Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said.
She said welfare organisations Mustadafin Foundation, SA Red Cross Society and the Historical Disadvantaged Individuals’ foundations provided relief to affected families, but no emergency shelter has been activated.
Sunday’s maximum temperature was 13°C and there was 80 percent rainfall.
Sweet Homes community leader Luxolo Pezisa said conditions were bad, but residents had become used to flooding.
“This is the story of every winter. What makes matters worse is that we built on sand. There are shacks where underground water emerges in winter,” he said.
Residents were trapped in their shacks on Sunday as the streets were waterlogged, he said.
Barcelona resident Luyolo Ntwanambi said:
“We don’t have as many problems inside our shacks as on the streets where we are unable to walk.
“I don’t even know how my three-year-old child will go to the crèche as this water will be here for a while.”
Another resident Nonceba Mehlwana said her family woke up to water flowing into their shack.
”It brought unbearable cold with it. It was still dark then, but we were forced to wake up and put something on the door to prevent more water from getting in,” she said.
Mehlwana said the bad weather aggravated their living conditions. “Many children have contracted diarrhoea and developed skin rashes because of floods here. Our shacks get wet and they stink when the sun comes out,” she said.
Cape Times