Farmers in the Western Cape have not escaped the raging water and hailstorms that washed through large parts of the province. While the extent of the damage to farmers is unclear at this stage, farming organisations have their hands full surveying the devastation on the ground.
The entire Western Cape is on high alert after heavy rains and flash floods made landfall this week. Farmers, businesses, and residents are busy with clean-up operations following downpours of between 20 and 110mm across the province.
Jannie Strydom, CEO of Agri Western Cape, told Food For Mzansi that producers in the province are mostly grateful for the rain they have received. However, the heavy rain did do some severe damage in some areas.
“It seems that the Tankwa, Central Karoo and De Doorns were hit the hardest,” Strydom said. “At this stage, the extent of the damage cannot be determined, but damage to roads and fences have been reported.”
Strydom said they realised that these are not favourable conditions for table grapes, specifically. “We hope and trust that the damage will be minimal.”
Vinpro assessing damage
Meanwhile, Food For Mzansi can confirm that Vinpro’s technical team are currently working on a regional survey to capture and assess any possible damage suffered by farmers.
Vinpro is a non-profit company representing close to 2 600 of South Africa’s wine producers, cellars and industry stakeholders.
In a media statement, the South African Weather Service (SAWS) said that South Africans need to prepare themselves for more rains, with the risk of flash flooding in some places in the days ahead.
“The central and eastern parts of the country have already seen flooding in recent days and weeks due to a lot of rain that has been experienced since the beginning of the summer rainfall season.”
Furthermore, the ground in many of these places, remains saturated and rivers and streams are running full. Under such conditions, flash floods could be triggered quite easily, the SAWS cautioned.
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