Background

A period of unusually heavy rainfall, resulting from the La Nina and Southern Oscillation mechanism, affected much of Southern Africa from late December 2010. This led to flooding problems in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. Rainfall within the catchment of the Orange River resulted in severe problems in the Northern Cape from January 2011, as the Orange River discharge and peak flow reached their highest levels for nearly a quarter of a century. Indeed, peak levels recorded at Upington were the 4th highest in the previous 70 years. Peak levels of over 4.5 meters tend to cause localised flooding around Eksteenskuil, thus the peak of nearly 8 meters resulted in widespread devastation. Furthermore, the river levels remained high for several months with a secondary peak of 6 metres occurring in May.

The flood problems were compounded by unusual local weather conditions, which were typified by cloudiness and storms. The equivalent of virtually a year’s rainfall, 236mm, fell during the late summer months of February and March. Indeed, 96mm were recorded on a single day in March. For many Eksteenskuil farmers the impacts of these unseasonal conditions were more problematic than the floods, as the conditions were poor for harvesting and effective drying of the grapes. Thus, some farmers lost much of their harvest and the majority suffered from poorer than usual quality.