Riverlands families struggle to pick up the pieces after flash floods

David Daniels lost almost all his chickens in the floods.

• Residents of Riverlands in Malmesbury in the Western Cape are struggling to rebuild their lives after another flood at the weekend.
• Three dams burst their banks on 7 August, and on Saturday the area was flooded again with water from a fourth dam.
• The Swartland Municipality is leading clean-up efforts and providing temporary accommodation and water.
• The Department of Water and Sanitation says the fourth dam is now empty and there is “no risk” of any dam failure.

“I have no future here. I’ve lost everything,” says David Daniels, 62, who watched as his farm was ruined by a flash flood at Riverlands near Malmesbury in the Western Cape on Saturday.

The area first flooded when three dams burst their banks on 7 August. On Saturday, the area was flooded again when a fourth dam spilled over. The dams belong to the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

DWS acting spokesperson Andile Tshona said after the failure of the three dams, the department’s engineers inspected the dams on 12 August, and found a failure in the embankment on the fourth dam. The dam was drained through a side channel to lower the water levels, and protect the lives of those living downstream. But the water started “flowing quicker than expected” through the spillway causing flash floods, he said.

Residents were evacuated on Saturday but some have since returned to their homes

Tshona said the fourth dam is the largest. Had the embankment burst, it could have caused a loss of lives, he said.

When GroundUp visited the site on Monday, clean-up operations were underway. Swartland Municipality spokesperson Mart-Marie Haasbroek said debris and mud was being cleared from roads, damaged areas were being secured, and services were being restored.

Daniels, a chicken farmer, had 34 chickens and sold the eggs. “With the first flood, I lost 17 chickens. Then I lost ten in the second flood. Now I only have seven chickens left,” he said.

He lives with his wife and three sons in a Wendy-house. They are all unemployed and rely on Daniels’ monthly pension of R2,180. He sells eggs to complement his pension and does occasional carpentry.

The floods damaged his cabbage, peas, mielies and onion garden. “I recently planted peas, but I doubt that it’s going to grow now because the whole garden is covered with mud.”

He said he cannot afford to buy new seeds and if he takes out a loan he doesn’t know how he’ll pay it back. “How must I get help now? How must I get the funds to help me get back on my feet and make up for all that I have lost? My pension is not enough,” he said.

His roof was damaged and food he had been keeping in the kitchen was also destroyed by the floods.

Daniels has lived in Riverlands all his life and has been farming for the last 10 years. “It’s taken me nearly ten years to get to where I am, and now I’ve lost everything. It’s going to take me another ten years to make up for what I’ve lost. But I’m already 62. That means I’ll be in my 70s when things come right,” said Daniels.

Pig farmer Selvyn Simons is also struggling to cope with the aftermath. He lost 16 pigs in the floods.

“The walls collapsed in the stall where we kept the pigs. We lost several piglets and two sows,” he said. He makes a living by breeding and selling piglets. “Over three months I sell about 30 to 40 piglets at R450 each. Sometimes people buy 40 pigs at one time,” he said.

Simons said their water and electricity have been cut. He said he and his mother spent the weekend at a church nearby. “I still have so much work to do. I need to clean up the whole area. But I need to find help because this is too much work for one person,” he said.

SueAnn Abels and two other relatives arrived just before 9am on Monday to help clean up the house where her 87-year-old grandmother lives with Abels’ son and sister. When GroundUp arrived, two wet mattresses soaked in mud were being loaded onto a bakkie. Damaged cupboards were being thrown out. The house was full of mud and sand.

Haasbrook said 107 people were being housed in two community centres “until further arrangements can be made to reintegrate these residents with the assistance of the national Department of Human Settlements”.

“The community of Riverlands has been the most directly affected by the floods. The secondary effect of the flood was, however, the interruption of power and water services to the towns of Riverlands and Greater Chatsworth. This affects more than 1,000 people,” she said. She said the Swartland Municipality is providing water daily to the whole area with water tankers.

Tshona said the fourth dam has now been emptied and there is “no risk of failure of any dam in the stream”.

A Gift of the Givers team was on the scene to hand out food to those in need.

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