By daybreak on Friday, 14 Jan- uary, Welverdiend residents living next to the Varkenspruit noticed that it had risen to several metres above its normal level. Huge amounts of water were gushing down this stream that flows through the town. A house in 5th Avenue was flooded and the water came very close to other properties, too.
The water levels were so high that the bridge on the main road to Potchefstroom was expected to be flooded by about 08:00. Fortunately, the water started subsiding later.
The Varkenspruit flows from the south of Doornfontein. The heavy rains in the area surrounding the mines on Thursday night caused the heavy downflow.
In the same area, the floodwater washed a part of a bridge between Wedela and the road between Elandsrand and the N12 away. A large chunk of the road surface collapsed and a cavity caved in under the bridge. The powerful flood water bent the safety railing on the side of the bridge as if it was plastic.
Although officials closed the bridge to traffic, reckless motorists almost immediately opened the lane that was not damaged again.
The amount of mud that washed onto the tar road next to the large Kusasalethu slimes dump between Elandsrand and the N12 made it look like an offroad dirt road.
According to the Merafong City Municipality, the mine is responsible for replacing the pipe at the da- maged bridge.
The municipality says it had cleaned under the affected bridges in Welverdiend in the last financial year.
“Merafong will hire the machinery to clean the spruit,” says the municipal spokesperson.
According to Mr Johan O’Neill, a Carletonville resident who dutifully tracks our rainfall figures, a total of 91 mm of rain fell between 1 January and 18 January this year. This is much higher than the average of 5.2 mm measured over the same time for the previous six years.
He says the rainfall figures were also much higher than usual since the start of the rainfall season.
Carletonville had 1,019 mm of rain in 2021, compared to the average of 847 mm in the past six years.
In December alone, the rainfall was 231 mm, compared to the average of 170 mm in the previous years.
