Buffalo City Metro in the Eastern Cape has warned residents and motorists to exercise caution as rainy conditions persist.
Wards 15, 30, 33, 35, 45 and 49, along with Duncan Village Ward 2 and 6, are the most severely affected.
“However, no one has been displaced or any fatalities reported. Our Disaster Management teams, together with our Human Settlements, are still on the ground collecting information on the affected people,” Buffalo City Metro said in a statement.
According to the city, the Electricity Department and Fire Services, as well as Disaster Management, are still on standby.
Residents are advised to contact Disaster Management on 0437437118 and the Fire Service on 043 705 9000 in the event of any eventuality.
“We advise councillors to be aware of the inclement weather conditions and activate their ward-based structures for any eventualities,” the city said.
The city noted with concern that some of the contributing factors to flooding include the construction of houses in low-lying areas (flood lines)/wetlands, the strain to the drainage system, which is mainly compromised by littering and the illegal building on top of municipal infrastructure.
“Our Disaster Management services are in constant contact with the South African Weather Service to monitor severe weather conditions, and to distribute such to the affected communities and sectors,” the City said.
Motorists traveling around the East London, Mdantsane, and eQonce areas are advised to look out for low-lying roads and bridges.
A number of streets are experiencing blocked drainage, which is caused by illegal dumping. However, the city has deployed jetting machines to unblock stormwater drainage systems.
“Our teams (both internal and external) have been on standby and have been working on all the areas of Buffalo City to unblock stormwater systems and the overflow problem in the city, and will continue to do so until the situation is improved or rescued," the city said.
With regards to the water outage in Dimbaza, the city confirmed that power has been affected, and as a result, the whole system is empty, and it will take about a week to recover the system. This was due to no production of water and pumping from Amatola Water's Laing WTW for three days. – SAnews.gov.za
