Mthatha Dam not to blame for floods, say Majodina and OR Tambo municipality

Water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina and OR Tambo district municipal bosses have maintained that the Mthatha Dam was not a contributing factor to the floods that killed more than 60 people in the district alone this week.

As of Saturday morning, the death toll had climbed to 86.

Majodina, OR mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana and King Sabata Dalindyebo mayor Nyaniso Nelani expressed deep repulsion over videos circulating on social media claiming that the floods in Mthatha were a result of the Mthatha Dam's sluice gates being opened.

They debunked such claims as unfounded and devoid of the truth.

Majodina said there was another video of an overflowing dam alleged to be that of the Mthatha Dam, insisting that it was untrue.

The dam in the video is more than 20km downstream of the Mthatha Dam.

According to Majodina and her department, which owns and operates the Mthatha Dam, the dam does not have sluice gates.

It has designed spillways that automatically release water when it reaches full capacity.

“The KSD and the OR Tambo municipalities have no jurisdiction over the dam, which is a source of water supply for the Mthatha area,” she said.

The department, as soon as the incident happened on Tuesday, deployed dam safety engineers on the ground to assess the situation and determined that heavy inflows were experienced from the Cicira Tributary into the Mthatha River downstream of the dam, resulting in the riverbanks overtopping.

“Upon assessment by the department's engineers, the gauge readings at the dam indicated that on Tuesday at 4pm, the water levels at the dam were sitting at 99.8%, which was a slight decline from the 99.9% of the previous week,” Majodina said.

“However, by midnight on the same day, the dam experienced a sudden inflow of water from the rains in the upstream catchment, which increased the stored water from 99.8% to 102%, leading to the dam spilling.

“The outflow of water from the dam coincided with the heavy flows from the Cicira River downstream.”

According to assessments, the upper reaches of the tributary also experienced flash flooding in saturated conditions, which led to the Mthatha River overflowing its banks.

Majodina said the department was working with the OR Tambo district to restore the Thornhill water treatment works in Mthatha, which was also affected by the floods, to return to its functioning and supply the town with potable water.

Many parts of Mthatha, including some in the CBD and other places in Mqanduli and surrounding towns and villages, do not have water.

Majodina said the “fake news” came at a time when the nation was mourning the tragic deaths occasioned by the inclement weather, urging the public to refrain from inflicting more pain on those affected by the disaster.

She extended her sincere condolences to the grieving families.

The community of Mthatha West, where most of the deaths from the floods in the province were reported, suspected the Mthatha Dam may have contributed to the disaster.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, premier Oscar Mabuyane and senior government officials visited the area on Friday.

Residents expressed their suspicion about the cause of the floods and urged Ramaphosa to institute an independent commission to investigate the flood and the role of the Mthatha Dam.

Daily Dispatch