Kai !Garib in Flood
For the past couple of months, the Northern Cape has
experienced several distress calls about flooding which
happened in various locations of the 4 districts in the Province.
Due to heavy rainfall that occurred in the catchment area of the
Vaal River in Gauteng-, Orange River in the Free State- and the
Northern Cape Provinces, the inflow of run-off water feeding the
Vaal-, Van Der Kloof- and Gariep Dams increased drastically.
The increase in flow rate in both the Vaal- and Orange Rivers resulted in the lower-lying areas adjacent to the rivers to be flooded. Main roads such as the N14 between Kakamas and Keimoes an the R27 between Keimoes and Kenhardt have been closed, resulted in the using of alternatives routes. The flood waters caused all the islands in the Keimoes area to be inaccessible for transport and were completely cut off. The only means of reaching the communities was via air support in cases of medical and trauma emergencies. Communities on 28 islands and a total of 995 households were affected. In total, 269 Food parcels were issued by medical rescue teams to communities affected on the cut off islands. For a complete flood report: http://www.kaigarib.gov.za/documents/FLOODREPORT.pdf
Dam levels are as follows (25/03/2011):
• Vaaldam 99.0%
• Bloemhof 97.5%
• Van Der Kloof 106.5%
• Gariep 107.3%
Lower Orange River
• Flows in the Lower Orange River are:
• Current flow at Prieska of 1043.35m3/s.
• Current flow at Upington of 953.71m3/s
• Current flow at Brand Karos (near Orange River mouth) of 627.26m3/s
