The municipality responsible for the Namakwa district is now scrambling to repair flood damage caused by heavy rains and flooding.
Certain areas of the Nama-Khoi municipality suffered severe damage last week after the Buffels River, Skaap River and other rivers in the area flooded.
Rodney Kritzinger, speaker of the municipality, says the floods claimed the lives of four people, caused damage to infrastructure and cut off several communities from provincial roads. One person is still missing.
“Although the flooding mainly caused damage to provincial and national roads, the municipality is busy leveling dirt roads in Komaggas, Kleinsee and other surrounding towns to make these places more accessible,” he says.
The Namakwa district municipality has already decided to declare the area a disaster area.
Kritzinger says he hopes that the local and provincial government will now act quickly to prevent any further damage and loss of life.
“We cannot afford the same extensive damage caused by the last floods in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district in 2021. We therefore appeal to the provincial government to act quickly to assist the Namaqualand community.”
The provincial spokesperson for roads and public works is already establishing when the roads in the area were last upgraded, whether these roads form part of the department’s backlog of 42.5 km of gravel to built roads and how much is needed to repair the damage caused by the floods.
“We will continue to work to restore service delivery in the area so that the people in the Namakwa district can return to their normal lives as soon as possible.”
