/ 31 January 2006

‘Something like cloudburst’ floods Pretoria shacks

Several shacks in informal settlements around Pretoria were flooded on Monday after the city had about 100mm of rain in an hour, emergency services said.

Spokesperson Johan Pieterse said on Tuesday that shacks in Soshanguve and Ga-Rankuwa were flooded and some moved after the heavy rain.

”It was something like a cloudburst,” he said. ”The informal settlements look like rivers. The ground is saturated after the recent rains, so the water flows away, through houses and shacks.”

He said the residents did not want to be evacuated for fear of not being able to return to their shacks.

”They literally hang on, even if the shacks are under water.”

Pieterse said several streets and causeways in the city were flooded.

A car was washed off a causeway in Soshanguve, but metro police managed to rescue the occupants.

”The city looks bad — mud and potholes everywhere. But the shack dwellers are the worst off,” he said. — Sapa