Victoria Falls Hit By Flash Floods
Victoria Falls has been hit by flash floods following incessant rains that pounded the city since Friday destroying pre-cast walls, household property, gardens and washing away some roads.
The rains started falling on Friday morning until late afternoon before resuming on Saturday morning until evening. It was also raining Sunday.
The worst affected areas are ward nine especially around the shopping centre and near Vehicle Inspectorate Department Victoria Falls depot, ward 10 behind Mosi-oa-Tunya High School and ward eight around Esikhwahleni area.
The low-density area and central business district where hotels and lodges are were not affected.
The Herald reports that there were no fatalities but some roads, especially near Truck Stop, and small bridges were damaged.
In some yards, water levels rose to above knee level resulting in pre-cast walls falling especially those without weep holes.
Some water pipes were also left exposed due to massive soil erosion.
Most roads in Mkhosana were impassable as they were flooded resulting in water flowing into yards.
Poor drainage has been blamed for worsening the situation as most parts of the city have no storm drains while the available ones are too shallow to contain massive run-off.
Residents could also be to blame judging by the amount of litter such as plastic bottles, plastic paper and other garbage that was washed down by run-off.
Scores of people lost household property such as beds, stoves, refrigerators and electrical gadgets as well as food that was soaked in water.
Some residents had to drill holes through their house walls to redirect water that had flooded some rooms.
In Ward 10 there were over a dozen houses whose pre-cast concrete walls were destroyed. One of the affected residents, Mr Lizwe Moyo said water had risen close to two metres against the pre-cast wall in his yard before it gave in.
Residents have implored authorities to come up with an urgent solution to avoid a disaster.
Victoria Falls Mayor Councillor Somveli Dlamini who visited the affected areas to assess the extent of the disaster said the worst affected areas are in wards 8, 10 and 11.
He said the council will sit and work out a solution suggesting that a long-term solution is the construction of a storm drain.
More: The Herald
