THE country has experienced heavy rains in recent months, which resulted in unfortunate incidents of flooding. We have witnessed the misery and suffering of communities whose households were destroyed or washed away, and lives were lost due to the floods. The affected communities also include informal settlements.
It is wrong for people to erect shelters or build structures in areas that the municipality has demarcated or reserved to discharge the base flood.
It is also illegal to erect structures on weirs belonging to the Department of Water and Sanitation. A weir is meant to allow for overflow when the dam reaches its full capacity.
Building on land prone to flooding or meant to mitigate such a flood is high risk because climate-related disasters are incidents that happen inadvertently.
Therefore, it is of importance that we look back at what happened during the flooding and refrain from committing the same error of illegally building structures on either the flood base or dam weirs.
Some of the informal settlements are built on wetlands, which is illegal. In most cases, residents of these flood-prone areas are among the poorest and most vulnerable. It is therefore advisable to first check with municipalities regarding the legality or feasibility of the land they want to occupy prior to them settling there.
MARCUS MONYAKENI | Communications Specialist, Department of Water and Sanitation
Daily News