Students from parts of Kraaipan in the northwest were unable to go to school on Monday morning after bridges leading from their village flooded or washed away. Heavy rains have fallen in the area in recent weeks, turning a normally dry river into a raging torrent.
Officials from the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality visited the area to assess the damage. Kraaipan and Mareetsane are some of the areas severely affected by the heavy rains.
Two of the three bridges connecting the area have been washed away, while the third is completely submerged and the damage will be determined later.
Residents are now unable to get transportation to area towns and children are unable to go to school.
โOur children go to school on the other side of the river. They use this bridge, even transportation is on the side. This has negatively impacted us,โ says one of the residents.
Another resident says: โWe urge the government to repair this bridge urgently. This is an emergency."
Modiri Molema District Mayor Khumalo Molefe says immediate action will be taken.
โIf people can't get to schools, can't get to stores, can't get to health facilities, it's a clear sign of high risk that we need to mitigate. We have brought the provincial disaster management team here so that together we can make an assessment. We will meet now to coordinate our immediate intervention.โ
The government task force says it will also investigate why the bridges are in such poor condition.
โWhat I saw in Mareetsane, the road is new, but the bridge is still very old. I'd like to go back and look at the spec there. My suspicion tells me that you can't build a new road and ignore an old and dilapidated bridge. When you look at the quality of the road, it's not that bad, but the quality of that bridge doesn't correlate with the quality of the road,โ explains Molefe.
Residents have urged the government to speed up repairs to damaged bridges and roads.
The Eastern Cape has also been experiencing flooding:
