00:00This was the Lopino main road on Monday, after 20 minutes of torrential rainfall.
00:14All of the homes and business places along the stretch flooded out, water 4 feet and
00:19above in height.
00:21Visiting the scene 24 hours later, it was hard to imagine that it was the same area,
00:26except for the tell-tale signs of flood clean-up.
00:35The source of the flooding, according to residents, HDC developments and a lack of proper drainage.
00:41They recently started building more houses up in the back, so the drainage, again, is
00:46a problem.
00:47They don't have proper drainage.
00:50How long have you all been on this spot here?
00:52Over 30 years.
00:56And have you ever seen flooding like it did yesterday?
01:00Oh no.
01:01It started a couple of years ago, about maybe two or three years ago, when they started
01:05building houses in Newt.
01:07So then, obviously no proper drainage, so then we started to get the floods.
01:11We had a bad flood October 2022, but yesterday was worse than then, and that flood was horrible.
01:19Roughly how many feet of water are we talking about?
01:21It's high to me, so maybe about three or four feet.
01:25But residents say there's another piece of infrastructure exacerbating the flooding,
01:30and they're once again pointing the finger at a state agency.
01:33Rain came, and as usual, we always get flood, right?
01:40But this trip was even more worse because of that wall across it that was put down.
01:46Nobody likes to put down a wall in the state garden themselves, too.
01:50I know to myself, when rain have to come this year, we're going to get it real bad, because
01:56the water will back to the wall and back in, and that's exactly what happened yesterday.
02:01Right?
02:02That's exactly what happened yesterday.
02:04So even though we were getting flood all the time, it was worse yesterday now because of
02:09the wall.
02:10The residents also lament that despite the degree of flooding experienced on Monday,
02:15minimal help has been forthcoming.
02:18Last two years, I lost my two washing machines, my chiller for outside here and my fridge
02:23inside.
02:24Up to now, I didn't get funding to say, well, look, I'll buy back our washing machines and
02:30– you understand?
02:31Nobody came.
02:32And look, this year, it's the same thing.
02:33We can't afford a fridge and a battery, right?
02:38So I don't know why things are taking place.
02:39I don't know.
02:40What are the residents asking for to help alleviate or solve this issue?
02:45Proper drainage.
02:47The rivers are high.
02:48They're not cleaning the rivers.
02:49They're not maintaining anything here.
02:50Nothing is being done.
02:51We don't see our councillor.
02:52We don't see an MP.
02:53Oh, don't worry.
02:54Elections are around the corner.
02:55We're going to see them.
02:56So, I mean, just show up now.
02:57Show up and help us a little bit, because every year, so we can't keep taking this loss.
02:58It's a lot of losses.
02:59TV6 News contacted both WASA and HTC, and we are awaiting responses from both HTC and
03:00WASA.
03:01We are waiting.
03:02We're waiting.
03:03We're waiting.
03:04We're waiting.
03:05We're waiting.
03:06We're waiting.
03:07We're waiting.
03:08We're waiting.
03:09We're waiting.
03:10We're waiting.
03:11We're waiting.
03:12We're waiting.
03:13We're waiting.
03:14We're waiting.
03:15We're waiting.
03:16We're waiting.
03:17We're waiting.
03:18We're waiting.
03:19We're waiting.
03:20We're waiting.
03:21We're waiting.
03:22We're waiting.
03:23We're waiting.
03:24We're waiting.
03:25We're waiting.
03:26We're waiting.
03:27We're waiting.
03:28We're waiting.
03:29We're waiting.
03:30We're waiting.
03:31We're waiting.
03:32We're waiting.
03:33We're waiting.
03:34We're waiting.
03:35We're waiting.
03:36We're waiting.
03:37We're waiting.
03:38We're waiting.
03:39We're waiting.
03:40We're waiting.
03:41The government is giving an assurance that the affected constituents will be assisted
03:45in accessing the requisite support from the regional cooperation and or social services.
03:51Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
Comments