Waterlogging woes plague farmers as intense rainfall continues

There are mixed emotions in the farming community, ranging from gratefulness to anxiety, as much more rain is expected to fall throughout the country this month and the next.

Leendert Snyman, a cattle farmer from Griekwastad in the Northern Cape, said it was difficult to explain how powerless they had felt in the drought.

“Every year after the rain season you count the millimetres of rain that fell and you calculate how it halved.

“Sometimes it doesn’t rain for one or two years in a row and the anxiety sets in of how are you going to feed your cattle.” Snyman said they had to sell the animals they knew wouldn’t make it through that season.

“It becomes a financial nightmare. Fortunately, on a day it started raining again, and two weeks later again and a month later again. This year it has rained more than the previous four years combined.”

Despite feeling gratefully overwhelmed, Snyman said they still needed to fight to keep the farm going.

“Money is still tight and it will take about three to five years to recover financially. But our spirits are high.”

A family tubing at Sossusvlei in Namibia. Picture: Schalk Pienaar/Facebook

“We cannot express our gratitude enough. We put our faith in the Lord at the beginning of the season for a good rainfall season.”

Bertus van der Westhuizen, chair of Transvaal Landbou Unie SA, said he had heard there were parts of the Free State where maize was being cut due to the drought.

“I cannot confirm this, but apparently is happened at Grootvlei. In Calvinia it hasn’t rained a drop yet.”

“In Hoopstad and the Bultfontein area, there is a lot of waterlogging damage to maize reported. The water table soils are saturated in both these areas.”

He added that the soybean farms in Bethlehem and the Reitz area also experienced a lot of crop damage due to excessive water.

“I hear it is still very dry in Ermelo and the Bethal area. I do not know if they have received rain by now.”

But Van der Westhuizen said the heavy rainfall was good because it produced a lot of pasture.

“The fields are looking good. This means that livestock will be able to overwinter more easily.

“However, the danger is great for veld fires in winter due to lush fields.”

Van der Westhuizen said farm dams and watering holes were full, which meant water should not be a problem for animals and wildlife until the new season started in September.

“The crops look promising currently.”

Van der Westhuizen said there were also large areas struggling with drought and water damage.

Annette Steyn, Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow minister for agriculture, said dams were full with a possibility of flooded rivers, following a good rainfall season.

“The Gariep dam was 120% full by 3pm yesterday.”

Steyn said the Orange River dam wall sluices could not be opened right now because the Gariep dam, as well as the PK Le Roux dam, were full to capacity.

The Orange River in flood at Bethulie. Picture: Tienie du Plessis/Facebook

“If it is opened now areas such as Upington will be flooded.”

She explained the good rainfall this year was good for the country, especially regarding problems such as water-shedding.

Steyn, who farms maize along the river, said because the water level has risen almost three to five meters, they had to remove their water pumps because they cannot pump that high.

“For two weeks our maize will not be watered and have a chance to dry out.”

Steyn said last week the water level rose so high in the Aliwal North area that the level could not be read. Yester, the department of water and sanitation announced a high flow warning for the Orange River downstream of Gariep dam.

An inflow of 3 136.14 m3 /per second was measured entering into Gariep Dam, respectively from the Orange and Caledon Rivers.

The Gariep dam data indicated the dam level was 58.43m and 119.64% full, with a net volume of 5 866.362 million m3 .

South African Weather Service forecaster Tokelo Chiloane said more rain was expected this coming week and month.

Chiloane said on Saturday, Nelspruit recorded 64mm of rain and Mafikeng recorded 66.2mm, while Johannesburg recorded 27mm.

The weather service also issued a level 5 warning of disruptive rains that may result in flooding.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za

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