A rural community has been cut off from the rest of Cape Town by flooding, with little help in sight until the waters recede.
|||Cape Town - A rural community has been cut off from the rest of the city by flooding, with little help in sight until the waters recede.
Mikpunt is just north-west of Klipheuwel, next to the R302 between Durbanville and Malmesbury.
Resident Marque van der Walt, who has lived there for seven years, explained: “Mikpunt is a community of around 400 people who own or live on a collection of smallholdings.
“The roads are dirt - they get lightly graded every few months. And the biggest problem is the access, which is a single point of entry, over a low-water bridge over a little stream.
“In summer it’s a trickle… but in weather like this it becomes a raging torrent.”
Van der Walt estimated its width at 20m and said it was more than waist-deep. “The only vehicle which crossed today has been a tractor - not even 4x4s have been able to cross the river.”
Van der Walt said that around 350 people who would normally cross the bridge had been stuck since the flood began on Wednesday evening.
“There are many of us who’ve been stuck at home for the second week in a row,” he explained.
Among these people were professionals, schoolchildren, self-employed people - for all of whom the restriction was “a disaster”.
“I’m embarrassed to phone work and tell them. It sounds archaic, but it’s true - we can’t get to work because we can’t cross the river.”
Van der Walt said the solution was simple: a new bridge - and the community was waiting for the City of Cape Town to act: “There are constant requests for a bridge - we’ve even sent a petition - but nothing’s happened.”
In response, the city’s traffic chief, Richard Bosman, told the Cape Argus: “The settlement in question is adjacent to the R302 and the Mosselbank river, and is on private property.”
The flooding was “due to the establishment of the settlement on unsuitable land”.
“To address the issue in the longer-term, the owner of the land - the registered farmer - needs to erect a proper bridge as the ‘roadway’ is a drift.
“The city cannot erect the bridge in this case, as it is private property,” Bosman said.
On Thursday, some residents stood on the river bank drinking beer as they watched children cavort in shallow puddles.
Shaun Prins, who was brave enough to wade across the river, told the Cape Argus that when he arrived in the area on Wednesday night to visit his parents, “the river was not as flooded”.
He said he had only noticed that he was stranded the following morning when he had to go back to home to Kraaifontein.
“My parents are stuck inside and I needed to leave and go feed my dogs and also open my shop. It’s been closed all day since I have been stuck here.”
Paul Pienaar, who works for a Boland toilet cleaning company, said he had been told to turn back and should not attempt to cross the river to get into the area.
“We were just told not to go in, it’s dangerous for the bakkie,” he said.
Chris Coetzee, who owns two properties in Klipheuwel, said this had been the worst winter they had experienced. “We have had more rain this year than we have had in five years. In the previous winters it never flowed this much,” he said.
zodidi.dano@inl.co.za
Cape Argus