Municipality to investigate flooded RDP houses after recent rains
Several RDP homes in the Greenside area and extensions have had to deal with flooding, rainwater seepage and damaged belongings and furniture following recent heavy downpours.
POLOKWANE – The Manabile family is one of the Greenside families looking for help.
Tebogo Manabile, a frustrated member of the family of three, says her family is tired of living a life of mopping up water in and around their RDP house.
Due to the seepage of water into their home and flooding when it rains, the family feels overwhelmed.
“When we moved in here in 2001 we thought we have finally found a place that we can call home, but now we are tired of this house, it has brought nothing but misery and heartache to us,” says an overwhelmed Tebogo.
They have been staying in the house for more than 20 years and the situation they are faced with is that every time it rains, the house gets flooded and rainwater seeps through everywhere.
They say they have been reporting the matter to the municipality but to no avail.
The family has resorted to placing blankets on the floor to keep the water out, and drilled a hole in one of the bedroom walls so that the water can flows out to the back yard, easing the pressure of the volumes inside.
“We have exhausted our efforts to get help.”
The little furniture that is still left in their house is falling apart and the walls of the house are moist.
All three family members are unemployed and depend on social relief grant to get by, as well as with piece jobs.
Theirs is but one in a row of houses that experiences the same problem, they told BONUS.
During several days of discussions with the Department of Human Settlements, they visited the impacted homes and committed to the families that they would return with solutions.
In response, spokesperson Hitekani Magwedze stated that they had started their investigations.
“Our project managers went to the affected sites and visited the families. They confirmed that some of the houses are affected by water seepage when it rains. They have engaged with the local municipality to come up with proposed solutions to remedy the problem and we are still waiting for that report.
“It is important to state that when the houses were constructed in early 2 000, there was no indication of the flood line challenges.”
He added that specialists are still conducting investigations of what might have caused the flooding.
