Due to the heavy downpour last Thursday (8 June), the Helderberg was once again plagued by flooding, which turned arterial routes into waterways.
A persistent problem during the rainy winter season is flooding between Lower Lourens Street and Mynhardt Street (from the Hyundai Somerset West Service Centre up to opposite the DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette offices) in Gants Centre, Strand.
The water-logged roads in the industrial area are believed to be the result of heavy rains that cause the banks of the Lourens River, which runs parallel to Lourens Street, to burst and spill over into the streets.
While motorists risk driving through the flooded roads and pedestrians brace themselves for an unexpected “swim” along Lourens and Mynhardt Street, Tereo Community School, located just off Victoria Street, next to the Somerset West Traffic Department, bears the brunt of the flooding.
Overnight last Thursday, marked the third time in a week the school had been flooded – the previous times on Tuesday 30 May and Saturday 3 June. The school grounds were submerged causing significant damage.
According to Tereo CEO Anne Coetzee the school has reported the matter to council since last September, when the problem started, but to no avail.
She said the premises have been constantly flooded after the City of Cape Town raised a sand wall to prevent water spillage from the river and to curb squatters who set up camp on its banks from accessing a City-owned property located opposite the school. While the sand wall is apparently keeping water and the homeless off the property, it also seems to prevent excess water from heavy rains from channelling along the river into Strand Beach and diverting the river’s course down Victoria Street, which becomes flooded and in turn floods the gravel road, which leads to the school and the squatter camp known as Wrong Turn.
Coetzee further says floodings have had disastrous effects on the school, which has suffered irreparable damage. The flooding of the school’s main building, in the first instance, has resulted in damage to the offices, kitchen (including essential appliances for refrigeration), bathrooms as well as numerous classrooms, the computer and two storage rooms housing food, which provides 94 learners with three meals daily. The school also suffered the loss of valuable textbooks and workbooks, educational equipment, carpets and food, including more than 100 kg of maize meal, samp and rice.
While the school has initiated filling sandbags, which run along all the main building’s wall and are placed at all entrance ways to curb flooding, it has not prevented its grounds from being water-logged and sustaining damage every time it rains.
The floodings also rob the learners of valuable school time. As a result of last Thursday’s incident and further rains expected, the school foresaw having to close its doors for the next two weeks. This in the wake of important examinations the learners were scheduled to begin this past Monday (12 June). Meanwhile, the Imibala Trust has opened up its heart and premises to accommodate the Tereo learners.
During the newspaper’s visit to the school on Friday (9 June), while mop-up operations were conducted, Coetzee expressed her frustration with council’s lack of response and her school’s dire situation.
“We have had no assistance from the City of Cape Town,” she lamented. “We have reported the matter to Disaster Risk Management at 16:00 on Thursday afternoon, it is past noon on Friday and we have still had absolutely no-one here. Furthermore, our ward councillor has told us to be patient.”
Coetzee added the flooding issues, on top of a serious vagrancy issue, has become unbearable. The school is allegedly broken into at least three times a week, staff are constantly targeted by criminal elements and children are exposed to indecent behaviour. To boot, attacks by knife-wielding suspects and prostitution along the gravel road have become the norm.
DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette submitted a comprehensive enquiry to the City, which by Tuesday morning confirmed it was “still looking into the particulars.”
Ward 83 councillor Carl Punt said the flooding in the basin was an occurrence that is possible to happen within the 50-year flood line, especially with heavy rains during winter.
“After flooding in 2013, the City planned a Lourens River alleviation project to assist with minimising flooding in the Helderberg area. With this project already initiated in areas in Somerset West, the next part will also focus on the area around the Lourens River between the N2 and the ocean.
“In this area, flooding occurs normally near the local testing station (so Tereo school), Victoria Street, De Ruyter Street in Strandvale as well as around Kays Caravan Park and in Strand North,” explains Punt. “Budget for this project and its second phase has already been approved.”
Punt adds that the Catchment, River and Channel Department was on scene where flooding occurred, including at Tereo school and hopes to relieve the areas of the problem which is contributed to by water spilling out in a few places, particularly from the Melksloot canal in the Somerset West area.
