Cape Town - Gift of the Givers teams are on site in Keimoes, Northern Cape, to provide much-needed relief following floods caused by the rapidly rising levels of water in the Orange River as Vaal Dam sluice gates reach capacity.
The teams are providing assistance to people left stranded on various islands near Keimoes.
Gift of the Givers Northern Cape community project manager Emily Thomas said they had been on site all week.
“We arrived here on Monday following a letter from disaster management. The Islands surrounding Keimoes are the most affected. So far, we have distributed around 1500 hampers to the affected residents.
“At the moment the water is rising and very high, and we are expecting it to rise even further going into the next week or so,” said Thomas.
Gift of the Givers’ Ali Salbay said the teams were working in partnership with disaster management as well as the local and district mayors.
“Gift of the Givers hired a helicopter to make sure that the much-needed aid was delivered to the Islands,” he said.
The teams met ZF Mgcawu District Municipality Mayor Maryna Basson and disaster management to carve a way forward in anticipation of the number of villages cut off this time, expected to be substantially higher than last year as the water levels were rising rapidly and with greater intensity.
“Gift of the Givers has made arrangements with… Henley Air to urgently assist. In the meantime, our teams are distributing food hampers, bottled water, hygiene packs and blankets to areas still accessible by road. The helicopter will be on site today to commence delivery to cut off areas,” Salbay said.
Cape Times