Impacts of the Floods

During subsequent meetings and interviews it became clear that the flooding had caused a wide array of problems. Obviously short term economic problems resulted from the impacts upon the harvest, whilst longer term problems would result from damage to the health of some vines, and there would be costs in terms of repairing infrastructure. Widespread social disruption was evident, ranging from ill-health effects resulting from lack of access to safe drinking water, food shortages, children being unable to access schools or alternatively having to leave their homes and reside in a hostel in Keimoes and, in the worst cases, deaths from drowning. Most people were highly dissatisfied with the support that had been offered to them by different agencies, perhaps the most common theme being a lack of (consistent) information, whether about the timing and extent of the impending floods, or the distribution of assistance that would be offered in the aftermath.

The Kai !Garib Municipality subsequently produced a report outlining the impacts of the floods and details of the measures taken by various agencies to support the community (report below). Furthermore, the research team produced a report on the impacts of the floods, which was sent by the Eksteenskuil Agricultural Co-operative (EAC) to the Head of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development in Kimberley to support the Co-op’s claim for financial assistance (report below).

Further information and analysis of the impacts of the floods can be seen in the project team’s presentation to Traidcraft in May 2011 – ‘Fairtrade, Floods and Family: Raisin Production in Eksteenskuil’.

• Disaster Management Report on the Impact of Floods During January – February 2011 Kai !Garib Municipality
• EAC Report on the Impacts of Floods on Eksteenskuil, Northern Cape, March 2011