Officials were on Tuesday monitoring a cracked bridge over the swollen Olifants River on the West Coast and assessing other damage in the region following days of heavy rain.
The Clanwilliam Dam, which was at the 71% level only a week ago, was now full, a water affairs official said on Tuesday afternoon.
Vredendal police spokesperson Superintendent Johan van der Hoven said cracks in the bridge, on the north-east edge of the town on the main road to Vanrhynsdorp, were noticed at 11am.
Provincial engineers had been asked to assess it.
Police and traffic officials were limiting vehicle use of the bridge to one lane, and sending over only five cars at a time, at the drivers’ risk.
He said if the bridge was closed it would cut off the town’s last access road to the outside world.
The Olifants River had already cut off the road from Vredendal to Klawer on the N7.
”The situation is bad at this stage,” he said.
Van der Hoven said boats had been used to rescue a number of people on farms who were trapped when the rising river flooded their homes.
West Coast municipal manager Wessel Rabbets said the Cederberg and Matzikama local municipalities had been particularly hard-hit by the rain.
In the Cederberg, roads had been closed due to flood damage, while on the N7 just outside Citrusdal, only one traffic lane was in operation.
A number of vineyards along the Olifants River were under water, but this happened ”every year”, he said.
Pumps supplying Citrusdal’s water from wells in the mountains malfunctioned because of the flooding, and the road to the pumps had been washed away.
However, a South African Air Force helicopter ferried engineers to the site on Tuesday morning, and the pumps were repaired.
The South African Weather Service on Tuesday predicted heavy rain that could lead to localised flooding in the West Coast District, which includes Vredendal, the Cape metropole, and the western parts of Overberg. – Sapa