A bridge in Kraaipan was damaged following the heaving rain. A resident, Phemelo Metseyabangwe, says the flood water level which has since subsided, damaged the bridge and has affected their lives. He says the damage to the bridge has prevented pupils to attend schools, workers are having difficulties travelling to work, and transport has been severely affected.

“What is heartbreaking about this, is that now the sick - including pregnant women - have also been affected because they can’t cross the bridge. It’s sad because we do not know what to do now. We also can’t go anywhere because we need to cross the bridge to have access to many things including banks and local shops. So the damage to the bridge has complicated our lives,” he adds.  

He says they hope that the Ratlou Local Municipality would come up with a solution to this. Meanwhile, some residents of Bloemhof near Schweizer-Reneke in the North West were evacuated following the rising levels of the Vaal River.

On Tuesday 18 January 2022, the Department of Water and Sanitation said it will continue to monitor dams and rivers in this rainy season. The departmental spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, said this is necessitated by the sheer volume of water due to the ongoing rain across the country but mainly in the Vaal-Orange River System.

“To manage and protect infrastructure, the department took a decision to keep a total of four gates open for now with the possibility of more releases happening in the very near future. The Dam – which supplies most of Gauteng – has four sluice gates open (on Tuesday morning) with another to be opened during the course of the morning, which will bring the total to five. 

Bloemhof Dam's release was expected to be increased to 1400 cubic meters per second at 08h00 on Tuesday morning with a great possibility of further increases later in the day,” he adds.

OFM News