What happened, where and when?

The South African Weather Services issued a media release on the 9th of December 2022, indicating parts of Gauteng Province and North West Province were negatively affected by floods that hit hardest areas like parts of Soweto,

Erkhuleni, Johannesburg, Vereeniging, Brakpan (Gauteng Province), and Rustenburg, Bojanala (North West Province).

Joint rapid assessments coordinated by Gauteng and North West Provincial Disaster Management Centers (PDMCs) in collaboration with other government sector Departments revealed that 40,000 people had been affected. Some affected populations were evacuated to 2 community centers. The National Society, through the DREF, has been providing support to 6,500 people (1,300 households) in the areas of WASH, Health, and, Multipurpose Cash.

As of 19th February 2023 in Gauteng province, the Vaal Dam had reached its full capacity, which resulted in the opening of 12 gates to release the water. This has resulted in flooding downstream of the Vaal River especially in the Free State, North West, and Northern Cape Provinces. (https://www.gov.za/speeches/12-flood-gates-remain-open-vaal-dam-communities-urged-move-high-lying-areas-19-feb-2023). The forecast released by SAWs was expecting another severe impact due to Tropical storm Freddy landing. the possible scaled-up of NS intervention was then considering also the scope of Freddy which were finally no more a risk after it decrease on intensity on week 23 to 27th February.

This overflow of water is happening in a context of already severe impact of floods since early february. Indeed, from the 2nd week of February 2023, South Africa has been receiving again heavy rains consecutively which has resulted in the manifestation of ground surface water saturation being witnessed mid-February. The South Africa Weather Service’s (SAWS) flood threat was released, informing that the surface trough of an easterly wave of a slow-moving upper-air cut-off low-pressure system, which wreaked havoc in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal and was moving over the western interior creating a convergence zone over Gauteng and the eastern parts of the North West provinces. Despite the dissemination efforts conducted by National Society to minimize the impact of floods, the continuous heavy rains experienced resulted in flooding in most parts of the country in the early hours of the 13th of February. The continuous rainfall experienced in the second half of February has resulted in excessive ground saturation causing a sharp rise in dam levels.

In line with the above, the impact of the recent floods strained the existing DREF operation for Gauteng and North West provinces as other areas within these provinces (North West – Klerksdorp and Mafikeng then Gauteng Province – Vaal and Vereeniging) have now been affected. Stocks that were replenished have now been depleted to reach the newly affected areas.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies