Home News Eight sluice gates opened at Vaal Dam, dept issues flood warning

Eight sluice gates opened at Vaal Dam, dept issues flood warning

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According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, eight of the Vaal Dam’s 60 sluice gates have been opened after the watershed areas experienced massive water inflows as a result of the ongoing heavy rains.

Residents in Barkly West are among those who have been warned about potential localised floods. Picture: Supplied

ACCORDING to the Department of Water and Sanitation, eight of the Vaal Dam’s 60 sluice gates have been opened after the watershed areas experienced massive water inflows as a result of the ongoing heavy rains.

Department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said on Tuesday that the sluice gates at the Bloemhof and Hartebeespoort dams will also need to be opened due to the significant recent rainfall.

According to Ratau, opening the sluice gates will help safeguard the infrastructure amid the rising water levels.

“At the moment, the Vaal is the main one. Releases have also been implemented at Bloemhof Dam and Hartebeespoort Dam. The largest dam in the nation, the Gariep Dam, doesn’t have sluice gates; instead, it relies on gravity, so spillage will happen,” said Ratau.

Communities living in the Vaal’s catchment area have been warned about potential localised floods.

“All communities downstream of the Vaal Dam need to be extremely vigilant, including those near the Bloemhof Dam and those beyond the Bloemhof Dam.This means that those communities will be impacted all the way past Christiana toward the confluence of the Vaal and the Orange rivers, as well as communities beyond the confluence toward Namibia,” said Ratau.

Marco Classen, the owner of Barkly’s Nest Private Fishing Estate in Barkly West, said that the water level started rising on Sunday night.

“I’ll be knee-deep in my home by Thursday night, with Bloemhof dumping 2,200 cubic metres of water per second at 4pm today. I’ve removed everything from my home in Barkly … All of my pumps and sprayers have also been taken away,” Classen said on Tuesday.

He added that they have only recently recovered from two previous floods.

“After the previous floods, we completed all the necessary repairs and painting. We believed that the flooding was over for the year after removing all of the muck, but we were mistaken. We must now retrace our steps and start from scratch.”

Residents in Ritchie have also started preparing to evacuate their river homes as the water level has increased sharply.

Ritchie resident Linda Kotze said that the water began to rise swiftly on Tuesday morning.

“Furniture removal from residences along the river has already begun and farmers have already taken their pumps out of the water,” said Kotze.

“For now, that is all we can do, other than watch and see how far the water will push up further.”

Residents in Ritchie have started evacuating their homes as water levels are rising fast. Picture: Linda Kotze

On Tuesday, the dam levels were as follows:

Vaal Dam: 108.72%

Bloemhof Dam: 108.09%

Gariep Dam: 115.3%

Vanderkloof Dam: 106.3%

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