Niël Terblanché
A CLOUDBURST over the catchment area of the Okamita River late on Thursday afternoon and sustained rain over the catchment area of the Okahandja River caused Okahandja to be inundated with water.
An earth dam in the Okamita River broke as a result of the large volume of water that suddenly inundated the normally dry river bed which caused the level in the Okahandja River to rise sharply late on Thursday afternoon.
The Okahandja River that flows through the middle of Okahandja is a tributary of the Swakop River which feeds into the Swakoppoort Dam south of Wilhelmstal.
The water level in the dam rose from four to 24 percent and the level will definitely increase as the flood water that wreaked havoc in Okahandja on Thursday is still on its way to the dam.
At the same time sustained rain over the catchment areas of the rivers that feed into the Von Bach Dam caused the water level to rise sharply with 30 percent over the past four days. On Monday the level stood at 38.8 percent and by Friday morning the level was standing at a healthy 68.8 percent.
