No Need to evacuate Riverlands residents

The Department of Water and Sanitation has assured residents of Riverlands in the Swartlands Local Municipality that the situation has normalised requiring no need for evacuation. The department said water started flowing quicker than expected on Saturday through the spillway created to minimize the risk of failure of the fourth dam that was on the verge of failure. This follows the failure of three farm dams, located in Riverlands, that breached, resulting in flooding that caused severe property and infrastructure damage to the affected area, leading to hundreds of people being provided with humanitarian assistance. 'The department mobilised its personnel located in the Clanwilliam Dam project to open up the spillway on the fourth dam further and allow the water level in the dam to drop by at least 1 m per day." On Tuesday morning water started flowing quicker than expected. "As a result there was understandably concern from community members. The department would like to assure community members that the fourth dam is almost empty and water levels in the river should begin to subside. Should there be any further heavy rainfall, the dam would not store water to threaten the stability of the partially failed wall,' the department said in a statement Source: South African Government News Agency