The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Centre has entered into a co-operation agreement with the Swartland Municipality to institute an Early Warning System that will alert them should the Diep River flood.
The City’s Head of DRM, Greg Pillay, signed the agreement on 16 February at the offices of the Swartland Municipality in Malmesbury.
Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security said that, “the City is strengthening its capacity to deal with disaster risk reduction, response and recovery by entering into mutual assistance agreements with neighbouring municipalities, the private sector, other organs of state and communities. The City is also exploring cooperative agreements and strategies with neighbouring municipalities on policing as it has already done with the cooperative fire fighting and aerial fire fighting agreements.”
“This initiative further endorses one of the essentials the City has met in terms of acquiring “Role Model Status” as part of the United Nations: International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) – ‘My City is Getting Ready Campaign,” Smith added.
The Diep River with its origin in the Kasteelberg Mountain, between Malmesbury and Riebeeck Kasteel, enters the northern boundary of Cape Town at Klipheuwel, where it flows in a south westerly direction through the north western area of the city into the Rietvlei in Table View and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean via the Milnerton Lagoon.
In times of heavy rainfall, the Diep River may cause flooding of certain low lying areas and may pose a threat to communities in close proximity to these areas.
This initiative provides an early warning system whereby the neighbouring authority will alert the City of Cape Town when heavy rains are experienced in its area of jurisdiction, with the expected run-off southwards to Cape Town via the Diep River.
Depending on the severity of the rainfall and the flow of the river, this arrangement will provide the City of Cape Town with sufficient lead time to take measures to deal with possible flooding.
