RESIDENTS living beside the R488 million Driekoppies Dam in Mpumalanga fear for their lives and have urged both the government and the dam’s developers to move them from the area. Concerned residents said at a community meeting in Schoemansdal, just north of the Swaziland border at the weekend, that three people had already drowned in the dam. They also said that many local houses were cracking and collapsing as the earth became water logged. “We feel unsafe and the village feels like it’s becoming an island,” said chairman at the meeting, Lucky Shabangu. The secretary at the meeting, Sipho Mpila, told the community that less than half the families affected by the rising waters have been relocated to new homes. A total of 239 homesteads, or 2 000 people, are meant to be relocated to new houses.