Pretoria - Despite Pretoria having experienced three times its normal rainfall this season, Centurion Lake has become a pleasant scene as the City of Tshwane’s efforts to combat flooding at the site have finally yielded positive results.
This is according to Tshwane’s executive mayor, Randall Williams, who said that because of the City’s efforts to find a solution to the lake’s persistent water-overflow problems, flooding in the area was now a thing of the past.
Williams spoke after he paid an oversight visit to the lake last week, during which he was accompanied by City officials responsible for service provision in the area.
He said that owing to interventions put in place by the City, the lake had now turned into a fast-flowing river, with the horrid smell associated with it now having abated to the extent that the area was more pleasant to be in.
“There has been absolutely no flooding during this rainy season so far, even though we have experienced three times the normal rainfall this season.”
In October, Tshwane announced that in dealing with the worrying flooding of the lake, the City would gradually de-silt the body of water to prevent it flooding. “In fact, if you just do that regularly, you can effectively stop the lake from flooding, because what you are doing is ensuring the water can flow,” Tshwane’s chief of staff Jordan Griffiths said.
“What happened was that a lot of silt and materials were allowed to build up on the banks, which led to the lake overflowing. So this process is what we have been doing for the last few months just to make sure that we clear as much as we can and then evaluate how well the lake flows,” Griffiths said.
During his oversight visit, Williams said he had also checked most of the street lights in the area and, although the city still had a long way to go, great progress had been made in getting them working.
The City had also been fast-tracking grass-cutting, and had brought in outside contractors to ensure this was dealt with as soon as possible.
On top of that, Williams said the city would be looking at solutions to repair potholes that have developed in many areas across the city since the start of the summer rains.
Pretoria News