Donkeys escape Orange River island on homemade raft as waters rise near Grootdrink

Five donkeys marooned on an Orange River island near Upington in the Northern Cape were saved by quick-thinking watchers, who built a raft from decking and barrels to transport them across rising floodwaters.

The donkeys had been grazing on a farm on an island near the village of Grootdrink, 80km east of Upington, when they were trapped by the river’s rising waters on December 18.

Upington school teacher Yolandi Botes and her husband were fishing at Donkiedraai, the farm where she grew up, when the river began to flow quickly, reported Netwerk24. Together with her father Hendrik Cloete, the trio quickly built a raft from wooden decking lashed to barrels and enticed the animals on-board.

With local police officials unable to supply a boat, a farmer used his jet ski to drag the raft to the river bank, where the animals scrambled to safety.

Fears of flooding have ratcheted up in recent days as heavy rainfall continues across SA, with more on the way.

The Gariep and Vaal dams are full, compelling water authorities to open sluice gates on both dams to ease the pressure.

This is likely to lead to flood conditions on both rivers, said some local residents.

Parys-based adventure tour operator Graeme Addison said he feared a repeat of 2011, when the department waited too long before opening all the sluice gates at the Vaal Dam.

“It reached 120% before they let it all go and we had a flood,” he told TimesLIVE.

“The cost to downstream residents and businesses was incalculable. Weeks of evacuation, loss of pumps and facilities, some drownings.”

Addison urged water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu to “take direct charge”.

The flow of the Orange River is sharply higher, Upington-based adventure and whitewater tour operator Craig Eksteen told TimesLIVE.

“We are told flow will be at 3,000 cubic metres per second by January,” he said, adding that official numbers did not take into account flow from usually dry riverbeds that had flooded during recent storms.

“If the water department had been letting out 500 or 600 cubic metres a day, we wouldn’t be in this position,” he said.

Two of the Vaal Dam’s sluice gates were opened on Tuesday after the reservoir’s capacity hit 107%  following heavy rains over the past two weeks in catchment areas supporting the Integrated Vaal river System and the Orange River.

The department of water and sanitation said it would “continue monitoring the system and might open other sluice [gates] if the rains continue and heavy inflows persist”.

TimesLIVE