Edenvale business owners have threatened to bring traffic in Eastleigh to a standstill because of the lack of remediation work to Eastleigh Spruit.
The idea was suggested at Thursday’s public meeting on flooding, to get the attention of the municipality.
Held at the Edenvale Customer Care Centre, the meeting allowed community members to raise flood-related concerns.
It was organised by Ward 19 Clr Bill Rundle and saw approximately 20 community members attend.
Rundle said since Edenvale first flooded in 2004, very little repair work or maintenance has been conducted by the City of Ekurhuleni on the spruit.
Also read: Residents fear more flooding
“We are one of the top-paying towns in the city, but we are not getting what we pay for,” said Rundle.
“I don’t care if I only get the support of two people at this meeting, I will take the concerns and give them to the mayor when I invite him to Edenvale.”
Rundle said since the 2016 floods very little remediation work was conducted by the municipality on the Edenvale’s servitude specifically the Eastleigh Spruit section.
Ward 18 Clr Heather Hart explained that the Eastleigh Spruit was not designed to carry the large volumes of water the town receives during heavy rains.
“The problem has grown since the early 2000s. If we look at Meadowdale, what used to be a veld is all massive factories. Edenvale was never designed to take the amount of water which comes from that area.”
She explained that although there are several attenuation dams in the greater Meadowdale area, more needed to be built.
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“The problem is that there is not enough space to build more attenuation dams, so they will have to be built in Edenvale,” said Hart.
Eastleigh business owner Shirley Horake said she and her husband have endured several floods in Edenvale.
“In 2016 water rose to 1.3 metres in our business, It was chaos, it took us more than a month to recover,” said Horake.
“Then on March 5 and 8, lo and behold, Edenvale floods again. I am a nervous wreck. I cannot handle another flood.”
Horake said although she does not know what to do, she is willing to walk through Edenvale to gather support and get something done.
“If we make enough noise, something will happen.”
Like Horake, fellow business owner Chester Howell said it took him two a half years to recover from the 2016 floods.
He said every time it rains, his family phones him and ask hims to come home, where he will be safe.
“If I could, I would move. I don’t want to be anywhere near the spruit.
“I would hate to ever leave Edenvale, though. The town and its community is fantastic.”
Buurendaal resident Angela Cattaneo said although the heavy rains at the start of March were bad, they were not as bad as 2016.
She said she was lucky to survive the 2016 floods, when she needed to be rescued.
She explained that the damage caused by the floods was unbelievable.
Rundle said despite the small turnout, he would take the community’s concerns to the municipality
“If we continue to keep quiet, the municipality will do nothing,” he said.
A request for comment was sent to the municipality on March 15 at 8.20am, requesting comment by March 15 at 2pm.
At the time of publication no comment had been received.
EDITOR’S COMMENT – Comment requested for the March 13 article “Heavy rains result in flood of concerns” sent on March 7 has not yet been received by the NEWS.
