Joint efforts by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality multi-disciplinary teams are currently underway to bring normality to a number of service delivery areas following the heavy rains in the past three days.
The heavy rains which started from Sunday until Wednesday morning have caused a lot of service delivery disruptions in the areas of electricity, road access and general flooding of houses and informal settlements situated in flood plain areas.
On Monday, the Metro activated a Joint Operations Centre led by the Disaster Management Unit, working with critical service delivery directorates and other government departments to give support and implement interventions.
Since the heavy rains and floods started, the teams have been all out to restore electricity supply, clear blocked storm water drainage and flooded areas. Part of the work is around the relocation of people from flooded areas to different emergency venues for safety.
More than 50 roads and streets had to be attended to due to for either flooding or storm water drainage blockages. People’s homes and informal settlements across the Metro also flooded. Although some infrastructure damages will need serious infrastructure rehabilitation in the medium to long term, the Metro is working around the clock to clear a number of roads, storm water drains, fixed bursts pipelines, damaged and faulty electricity infrastructure.
The Metro Road and Infrastructure teams have cleared the following roads:
- In Ward 23 at the corner of M17 and Tyinira has been cleared.
- In Ward 58 in Bumbane street blockages have been cleared.
- In Ntsanyana street in Ward 55 the sucking of flooded and clearing of a blocked storm water drains has been done.
- In Ward 59 in Ncememe and Ncwazi streets blockages have been cleared.
In Ward 19 flooded water has been sucked out at Meke Road, Vakaza Street and a blockage cleared in Budaza street. In Ward 27 the teams sucked flooded water out of Tunyiswa and Madolo Streets and cleared blockages in Stanford, Dalton, Armstrong and Struanway Roads in Ward 10, 11 and 18. Kariega and Despatch areas are some of the most affected areas with flooding and storm water drain blockages. A number of streets were cleared bringing a huge relief to the movement of traffic. Busy roads like Mabandla in Ward 47 in Kwanobuhle were attended to, with sewage drain blockages and storm water drainage cleared. In Ward 48, Constitutional, Caledon and Cuyler roads were cleared.
Clearing and unblocking of drains was also done on Maduna Road in KwaLanga.
The water distribution teams also attended to 10 burst water pipes across the Metro. Water has since been restored in the affected areas. Under sanitation 383 cases were reported and currently under different stages of repair. Repair work is ongoing in other affected areas.
At least 12 Jet trucks and combination units are despatched on sites across the Metro. On assessment of the magnitude of the work, six more were added to improve the turnaround time.
The floods have led to the displacement of more than 3000 people across the Metro. They are currently being offered temporarily accommodated in Municipal halls and churches across the Metro. Disaster Management and the Department of Social development have activated the Social Relief of Distress programme to provide assistance for persons in dire need who because of floods are not able to meet their basic needs. The Metro Human Settlements up relocations of people from the already identified flood plains like Lapland in Kariega. They are being prioritised for relocation to the existing temporary relocation units (TRU). Both the Provincial and National Human Settlements departments have already made commitments to bring in additional TRUs.
Some of the Metro electricity sub stations are also affected. Joint interventions by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality teams, working with Eskom are currently underway to restore power in areas where power hasn’t been restored. Areas like New Brighton, Greenbushes and Motherwell were affected. Power has since been restored in all those areas. As assessment is underway to check the magnitude of the damage that was caused to the feeder substations.
W0e understand the ordeal, challenges residents are currently going through and humbly appeal for calm and patience whilst we work tirelessly to restore all services to all residents after the Municipality was unfortunately impacted by an unplanned natural disaster and force of nature.
FOR FLOOD RELIEF ENQUIRIES AND SUPPORT, PLEASE CONTACT: 041 585 1555.
NMB Communications
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