Residents who suffered losses in recent dam bursts should sue government, says MEC Bredell

Anton Bredell, the Western Cape MEC for local government, environmental affairs and development planning, has urged residents who lost their houses or have no water or electricity because of dam bursts in Dassenberg, Riverlands, to sue the national departments of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and of Water and Sanitation through their municipality.

Speaking on Thursday during the Western Cape provincial legislature’s debate on the impact of climate disasters on service delivery and infrastructure, Bredell said the land on which the dams were situated belonged to the national Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.

He said the national Department of Water and Sanitation was responsible for dam registration and dam safety.

Anton Bredell, the Western Cape MEC for local government, environmental affairs and development planning. (Photo: Adrian de Kock)

“This situation is causing a lot of finger-pointing about who is responsible for what. I want to caution all the different entities about this approach. The citizens of Riverlands are not happy with this approach.

“They experienced a traumatic event and some of them lost everything they owned in the disaster. The last thing they are interested in is our internal finger-pointing,” said Bredell.

“The community is going to be two weeks long without water because of the national departments not listening to engineers and dam specialists not to open the fourth dam.”

Read more:  ‘Screaming’ Riverlands residents flee as fourth dam bursts near Western Cape town

On Thursday, 8 August the wall of one of four dams on the property Dassenberg breached, affecting two neighbouring dams and resulting in severe flooding in Riverlands, Chatsworth and Dassenberg, outside Malmesbury.

On 17 August, the Swartland Municipality was forced to evacuate Riverlands residents again when work that the Department of Water and Sanitation was doing at the fourth dam resulted in a flash flood.

DWS denies responsibility

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina visited the Riverlands community on 11 August during the first floods that hit the community.

News24 reported that Majodina told journalists she wanted a full investigation into the dams’ collapse.

“Our engineers will be here starting tomorrow to work with other stakeholders. We have to go deeper to investigate. These dams are not part of the Water and Sanitation Department, but we have the responsibility to ensure that they comply with norms and standards,” she said.

Acting Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Andile Tshona said the department was not responsible for the dams.

“The Department of Water and Sanitation does not own any of the dams. The department will not be drawn into any public spat with anyone on the issue and will not entertain any form of speculation.

“We remain hopeful that the team that is investigating the failure of the dams will uncover all the issues that they are tasked to investigate. The department, as the regulator of the water sector, will take the appropriate action, depending on what the report says,” said Tshona.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development committed to responding to Daily Maverick’s questions on Friday. Its comments will be added.

Cost of climate change

Beauty Stoffel from the ANC said the Riverlands dam collapse was a reminder of the impact of climate change on infrastructure. She said the release of water at the fourth dam was necessary.

“The discussion to lower the dam levels that resulted in the unexpected and rapid release of water causing floods was necessary to avoid a catastrophic collapse,” said Stoffel.

“The [Riverlands] community members alerted the DA municipality to the collapse of the third dam wall which had been reported leaking during heavy rainfall early in the season, but it failed to act,” she claimed.

Bredell said storms in May and June left the province with a financial shortfall of R704-million.

He said that severe weather over large parts of the province in July caused damages estimated at R3.5-billion.

“If we add all the unfunded damages, we get an amount of R6.4-billion. As a province, we have R6.4-billion in infrastructure damages which is currently not funded.” DM