11 July 2024
With heavy rainfall predicted for Drakenstein for later this afternoon and during the early hours of tomorrow morning, Drakenstein Municipality has urged residents of Newton in Wellington, who have evacuated their homes voluntarily, to not return to their homes yet and remain staying with family members and friends for now.
This followed a thorough assessment - together with engineering experts and dam specialists – of the dam wall failure risk of a 150 000-cubic-meter farm dam in the Bo-Dal area, above Newton, as well as an analysis of rain predictions for the next 48 hours.
Residents of Newton – in particular the section between Jan van Riebeeck Drive and the Bo-Dal Road – have been responding positively to yesterday morning’s call by the Municipality and Councillor Stephen Korabie, its Executive Mayor, to evacuate their homes voluntarily in the interest of their and their families’ safety.
Houses in the area have been placed under 24-hour protection of the South African Police Service (SAPS), currently stationed in Newton, while the Municipality’s Fire and Law Enforcement Services are doing patrols and additional security is being provided by a neighbourhood watch.
The Municipality will assess the situation again following the heavy rains predicted for early tomorrow morning, and then advise residents on the best way forward.
The Municipality has also noted that various social media messages are being circulated on the Newton situation, but urges residents to only take heed of the Municipality’s official messages and advice.
To report an incident, residents can:
• Contact their ward councillor. The contact details of all ward councillors can be found here: Drakenstein - Contact-a-Councillor;
• Contact the Municipality at 080 131 3553 toll free (all hours); or
• Report non-emergency service issues via the Municipality’s SeeClickFix app which can be downloaded here: iOS: https://apple.co/3T4bnJa or Android: https://bit.ly/3T0VtiC.
In case of an emergency, residents can contact the Municipality at 080 131 3553 toll free (all hours).
Strictly for fires, contact the Municipality’s Fire Services at 021 872 2323 (all hours).
To donate items, residents can drop off any donations at the Paarl Fire Station, Berg River Boulevard, Paarl (open all hours).
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Issued by: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality
