Comments on: Hotel to span Vaal River islands

By: Nicholas Mulder

Nicholas Mulder — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:26:13 +0000

Three Rivers Golf Course is apparently under water already and there are other areas inundated. Vaal Dam at about 110% and pumping out approx 2000 cumecs at the moment. Anyone got any pics of the proposed building site?

By: ADVENTURELISA

ADVENTURELISA — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:39:51 +0000

Well, I think they’ve got a flood situation at the moment. My mom’s friend sent through photos of their place on the Vaal river. House is high enough but large expanses of lawn and garden are human-height under water! Would be interesting to know what the islands look like now; and in any case I would assume that the islands would be affected by small rises in water so it cannot possibly be legal to build there anyway?

By: Picks

Picks — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:36:32 +0000

I wonder if the people know about the 1 in 50 yr flood levels. We used to own 2 farms on the river and you will not believe how high the river can come up. Also NO insurance company will payout on flood damage under the high water flood mark.
On the Transvaal side of the river the ground belongs to the GOVERNMENT from the middle of the river to the high level flood mark
on the OFS side of the river the ground belongs to the registered ground owner until the middle of the river. Ours was on the Transvaal side where Stonehenge stands today. I hope they know about these laws, other otherwise they can be in for a good old time! when it floods

By: Jeanne-Marie Van den Berg

Jeanne-Marie Van den Berg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:01:43 +0000

Residents of Parys and area are already constantly complaining about problems with vervet monkeys. This is mainly because of the scale of development aloung the rivier banks. This development will worsen the problem considerably. The islands in the river are the only safe area the monkeys have to flee to – where else must they go ?

By: Karen Addison

Karen Addison — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:12:02 +0000

Feb 2006 the river was at about 1200 cumics. Today it is 200 cumics at Parys. The dam is 92% so there is a good chance of reaching that level again.

By: Nicholas Mulder

Nicholas Mulder — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:57:44 +0000

Apart from the geomorphology of these islands being almost unique in the WORLD, and therefore of special importance, I can’t quite fathom why anyone would want to build on an island, never mind the flood plain of a big river. People have short memories.