Déjà vu as Umdloti floods again

Umdloti residents were left in disbelief when parts of the town were again flooded on Sunday afternoon.

This after only 45.8 mm of rain fell in an 18-hour period.

“I actually cannot believe this is happening again,” said Colin Deeb in a video recording showing water rushing down the driveway at 20 South Beach Road, over the road and onto the beach at the ski boat club where it caused fresh washaways.

It was the fifth flooding event at that property since the big one in April last year that exposed the old decommissioned town dump in the valley above, and the fourth that saw at least three of the four houses there under water.

Homeowner Tom Pretorius said he experienced post-traumatic flashbacks when he saw the water suddenly flooding in at about 11.50am – almost two hours after it had stopped raining.

“I heard a loud noise and went outside to look. I saw the drains had popped and were overflowing. I ran back inside, told my partner Kip to get the cat and pick up some stuff. Then I went to put the sluice gates down (installed at all doorways after previous flooding events), but by that stage the water was already flowing in.”

A short walk up to resident Steve Jacoby’s house revealed vintage trash from the old town dump that Tongaat Hulett contractors are in the process of capping, blocking the concrete culvert built after previous flooding.

This caused water to dam up and overflow into his house. An accumulation of mud about a metre deep had swamped his swimming pool pump and two brand new air-conditioners.

Muddy water also flooded the swimming pool and entered the house through the back door.

Neighbour Keri Miller, who was mopping up the Jacoby’s living room floor, shared her views with the Courier, hinting something was amiss and needed urgent intervention.

“I’m upset because this is not a natural disaster. It’s a man-made issue. A flood is a flood, and you can’t change it, but someone here is not doing his job.”

Another neighbour, David Polkinghorne, who can see the town dump from his house on Margaret Bacon Avenue, said he inspected the valley on foot after the rain had stopped at 10am and everything seemed in order, except for some water trickling out of a previously repaired sandbank at the St Malo residential complex.

So what is causing the sudden flooding?

Nichol Projects construction director and 20 South Beach Road resident, Mike Nichol, places the blame squarely on developers who he suspects altered the attenuation dam south of Gold Coast estate to give residents and Sunset Club patrons a picturesque dam that holds a decent amount of water and attracts birds.

“The objective of an attenuation dam is to reduce the force of water that flows out of it by releasing water in a controlled manner. The attenuation dam fails to achieve this and the houses below have been flooded on five occasions now. The attenuation dam needs to be adjusted to function as an attenuation dam and not a recreational one,” said Nichol.

Managing director of Devmco property developers, Schalk Theunissen, said it was a Tongaat Hulett Developments dam to attentuate all the Sibaya Node 4 and 5 developments, including Shoreline, Gold Coast, Balise and Saxony.

In a previous article last month the Courier reported that the alleged alteration would have reduced the dam’s ability to hold and gradually release water, instead causing water build-up and releasing a torrent after downpours of as little as 30 to 50mm.

eThekwini Municipality’s senior stormwater and design manager, Greg Williams, confirmed the design of the attenuation dam was inspected and approved by the municipality, but could not confirm whether construction matched the design.

“The municipality is looking at ways to store more water and release it at a slower rate than is currently being released from the development,” said Williams.

Walking the Gold Coast’s perimeter fence moments after the flooding, Nichol also discovered 12 washaways into the forest.

On Monday afternoon, the Courier took a closer look. Over time it appears as though water has scoured out an up to five-metre-deep alternative riverbed through the forest that runs parallel to the old town dump. It also links up to the valley at the top end of the previously repaired sandbank at St Malo.

A Vumani Civils construction manager working on the dumpsite capping project, who asked not to be named, told the Courier there were also several headwalls along the edges of Gold Coast that discharged water into the forest.

He said that water ended up in the alternative waterway mentioned above and eventually into the valley that led to 20 South Beach Road and the beach. He said to protect their own work they had previously patched up the sandbank where this “tributary” joins the valley.

He said the work they were doing at the old dump site would solve the vintage garbage problem but it would not stop the water coming from above down the natural waterway.

After learning of the damage Sunday’s flooding once again caused to the skiboat club beach infrastructure, Umdloti Smart Village’s Petrus Scholtz said it was pointless repairing infrastructure in Umdloti if the root cause at the top is not resolved.

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