No more flooding at Mbabane Mall
MBABANE – Problem solved. Not long ago, heavy rains in Mbabane meant nightmare, as this used to cause flooding in most of the shops at The Mall in the capital city, but it would seem this is now a thing of the past.
Notably is that despite the heavy rains experienced in the past days especially in Mbabane, there were no reports of flooding at the Mall as was the case before.
This was attributed to a E5 million drainage system upgrade undertaken and successfully completed by the Municipal Council of Mbabane drainage upgrade has brought a huge sigh of relief for the tenants at the Mbabane Mall who suffered huge financial losses in the past as a result of the constant flooding during rainy days.
The council has since acted on this challenge, installing new water pipes referred to as culverts.
A culvert is a structure or tunnel, such as a culvert pipe that allows water to flow under various obstructions, such as roads, trails or even railways. They tend to be embedded, and surrounded by soil and they can be made from pipe, reinforced concrete or other materials.
When water damage occurs in a shopping mall, the risk of business interruption is a major concern.
Severe water damage can close down the entire mall or affect several retail stores, which will still have an effect on business operations. Some of the business affected at the Mall included SuperSpar and Portuguese Club, among others.
“My question is, have you seen flooding in those areas since the rains started and the answer to that is no. We started upgrading the pipes almost a year back.
“The pipes that were installed are called culverts. Previously, smaller culverts were installed, not really taking into consideration that there would be the Inter-ministerial offices.
“So, the water that was flooding SuperSpar and the other areas was coming from those offices due to the fact that there was no longer sand at the natural drainage such that the water was now streaming down the road instead of flowing under the sand as the culverts were small.
“So, after enlarging those culverts, it is now surprisingly quiet and nobody is complaining about flash flooding in Mbabane anymore,” Lucky Tsabedze, the council’s Public Information Officer said.
Bigger
He said the bigger culvert pipes were installed from SuperSpar straight to Mbabane River, which he said, was the first phase of the project.
“This phase cost E5 million and this was referred to as upgrading the drainage system. The second phase of the project, which I doubt will happen now due to shortage of funds, will be what we call drenching, which will be removing the sand from Mbabane River so that the river can revert back to its original size.
River usually gets smaller when sand accumulates such as the end of the river, a bottle net is created due to the sand. That’s the second phase of the project but I cannot commit myself on when this will commence, even though it is part of our plans because the council still has to look at the issue of budget.”
Some of the employees at the SuperSpar, who, however, asked not to be named, praised the council for upgrading the drainage system.
“In the past when it was raining heavily like we are seeing these days, we would brace ourselves for flooding.
“We have noticed a positive change in the past days and the council deserves praise for under
taking this initiative.
“The flooding affected our daily work because we would find ourselves spending the whole day removing water inside the shop when we should be doing our normal jobs,” she said.
Meanwhile, the council has embarked on an exercise of cutting overgrown grass around the city centre and surrounding areas.
Tsabedze said this was a scheduled exercise targeting high-traffic routes usually used by school-going children.
“We are targeting places where there are many people, where there are those seeking medical assistance like hospitals, around intersections and traffic circles. We are prioritising areas where there is danger of accidents,” he said.
“The reason we are targeting high traffic areas where there are pedestrians is because during
morning hours when it has rained, nobody wants to step his shoes on the overgrown grass, but prefers using the tarmac such that they share the small road with cars, which could cause accidents.”
He said they conducted such exercises on a monthly basis.
delaYing
The public information officer said there were times where people held the view that the council was delaying in undertaking such a crucial exercise.
Metaphorically, he said:
“What people fail to understand is that it rains heavily in the capital city. As we speak, every second day, it is always raining.
“For instance, if you cut grass along Sheffield road, by the time you reach GA Motors, the grass would have grown again at the area where you had started because the rain would sometimes force the workers to wait.”
He urged people to support the local government as it was undertaking this exercise in the face of inclement weather conditions.
He said it was important that they avoided disasters like flash flooding.