R25 MILLION TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION
TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION
The recent devastating storms and heavy rain, which hit the Midlands in the past couple of weeks, has left uMngeni Municipality with a repair bill for over R25 million.
Bridges, roads and stormwater systems were damaged by flooding, following a massive thunderstorm on December 29, and downpours last week aggravated an already difficult situation.
uMngeni Mayor, Councillor Chris Pappas, said that while not all the damage had been assessed, the repair bill was already sitting at more than R25 million.
To fund the repairs, the municipality will have to redirect funding from other plans.
Pappas told Village Talk: “Days of steady rain has meant that repairs have been delayed.
“We have written to the provincial government but are not holding our breath for a response or assistance. They have not assisted us with any previous storm damage. They have also used all their reserve funds.
“We will have to reprioritise money away from some of the social programmes as well as those programmes that are not our core competencies as local government.”
On the day of the storm, Village Talk reported on its Facebook page that residents living Merrivale had recorded over 100mm of rain in the space of a few hours.
The deluge turned a normally quiet stream at the bottom of Sutton Road into a river, and caused several trees to come down, with one, which fell near Baron Road, taking out a transformer and electricity pole. Power was only restored in some parts of Merrivale after 27 hours as Eskom staff battled the weather.
Merrivale resident, Neville Cusens, took to social media to praise the community spirit of residents who rallied to help each other in the aftermath of the storm.
“It’s great to know that neighbours are always there to offer help,” he said. “People offered to help flood victims, accommodation was offered, teams came together to remove fallen trees from roads and even a chameleon was saved from a fallen tree and relocated.”
Other parts of Howick also reported flooding as a result of the storm and photos were shared on social media of the central business district under water.
The Cedara Bridge on the R103 was flooded and hail stones damaged windows in Hilton, near the hospital.
Just days later, with residents already counting the cost of leaking roofs, damaged walls and loss of property, they were told to brace themselves for another storm.
On January 5, the South African Weather Service issued a weather warning for KwaZulu-Natal, which would see more than 50mm of rain falling in some areas, and which could lead to flooding of roads and settlements and danger to life.
The Midlands fortunately escaped a second huge deluge, but days of steady rain added to the already high water table, leaving parts of the Karkloof Conservancy and the uMngeni River Conservancy flooded.
The Lion’s River Fire Protection Agency (LRFPA), meanwhile, revealed that December 2022’s rainfall was the highest it had been in decades.
At the weather station in Dargle central 533mm was recorded, while Curry’s Post reported 489mm of rain.
In Lidgetton 448mm of rain fell between December 1 and 30, with 404mm recorded in Mbona, 375mm in the Karkloof, 374mm in the Kamberg and 306mm in the Hilton rural area.
At the LRFPA office in Tweedie the staff recorded 285mm of rain.
Midmar Dam, one of 14 dams operated by Umgeni Water, is currently overflowing, and both the Howick Falls and the Karkloof Falls are in spate.
Shami Harichunder, Umgeni Water’s corporate stakeholder manager, told Village Talk: “The amount of water held in storage in the uMngeni system is presently at 104%, the highest it has been in approximately five years.”
The uMngeni system comprises of Mearns Dam in Mooi River, which is sitting at 136%, Spring Grove Dam in Rosetta (103%) and Midmar Dam in Howick (102%) in its upper region and Albert Falls (106%), Nagle Dam (92%) and Inanda Dam (106%) in its lower region.
In a statement, released on January 7, the Department for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) said mop-up operations were continuing following the heavy rains.
“Proactive measures that were taken by disaster management teams ensured communities were fully aware of the actions they needed to take should they find themselves caught up in an incident,” said MEC Sihle Zikalala.
“We therefore wish to commend disaster management teams for their proactiveness in trying to deal with the heavy rains that have caused damage to several households and damaged roads and electricity infrastructure in a number of municipalities.
“Houses were damaged in a number of districts, with the full extent of the damages still being assessed.”
Umgungundlovu Mayor, Councillor Mzi Zuma, told Capital Newspapers that the municipality was waiting for a full report, detailing the extent of the damage, before deciding what intervention was needed and which provincial departments need to be engaged.