By Motšelisi Sekonyela
The bodies of only two of the four boys who drowned in the Hlotse River at Tṧehlanyane this past weekend have been recovered following a search and rescue operation by the police.
This as La Nina – a complex global warming-induced weather pattern characterised by unusually torrential rains catastrophic floods, hurricanes and cyclones – tightens its grip.
The four boys, whose identities were not yet known at the time of going to press, drowned while attempting to crossing the raging river after heavy downpours that have been battering the country since October last year.
The two bodies were recovered on Wednesday and Thursday respectively by the search team, according to Leribe district disaster management officer, Mare Keketsi yesterday.
The heavy rains saw properties damaged and some areas being flooded, posing a danger to both animals and humans.
The downpours experienced since last October are described by the Lesotho Meteorological Services as ‘above normal’.
It was during these torrents that four boys drowned in the Hlotse River in the Leribe district. Two of them are reported to be still missing after one escaped from the wrath of the raging river.
It is in this district where a large landslide occurred at Pitseng London, on January 16, blocking traffic flow along the Nelson Mandela Road. The destruction occurred at around 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon and the rubble was only cleared on Monday at around 9:00am by a private company contractor for the Polihali dam.
A landslide is defined by experts as the movement of a mass rock, debris or earth down a slope. These slope movements occur when forces acting down-slope due to force of gravity exceed the strength of the earth materials that compose the slope.
This destruction at Pitseng put a halt to the taxi business for a period of about 17 hours. Some ‘brave’ taxi drivers bypassed through a road in the village but an inspector of the Pitseng to Hlotse taxis, Mosella Khotlolo says this was a risky option as the road was slippery and muddy.
“Our business was badly affected by this unusual road block. Some of the taxi drivers were forced to cancel the transportation of passengers for the day, but the brave ones used a gravel road that passes through the village. This was risky because the rain was still falling heavily and the road was slippery and muddy. Luckily, no accidents occurred as a result,” Khotlolo said.
More tragedy struck in Pitseng as a result of this landslide, where a 34-year-old ‘Mamoorosi Makibi who lives atop a hill by the roadside lost two houses and a pigsty.
Makibi is a livestock farmer who rears pigs and chickens; the land on which the pigsty is built was eroded, only leaving the structure hanging by the thread while two of her houses completely collapsed to the ground. One of the houses is a storeroom while another serves as a kitchen.
Talking to theReporter this week, Makibi said her home has not always been so vulnerable. She is convinced that the construction of the road that leads to Katse dam by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) is what left the land unstable.
She would feel safe if the LHDA would take the responsibility of building gabions to prevent the soil from further slipping down and endangering her and her livestock. As it is, a chicken coop is only metres away from where the erosion occurred. With more heavy rains yet to come, she fears it will also collapse with her chickens inside.
“I am the sole breadwinner here. I make a living by selling chickens as well as pigs. My pigsty has already been damaged. Surely I can no longer keep my pigs there. It is only luck that there were no pigs when the incident happened. Otherwise they would have died. I therefore plead with the responsible authorities to speedily intervene as I fear for my life and my livestock,” she said.
However, this publication could not get a response from the LHDA on whether anything will be done to stop the land from further eroding.
But an independent civil engineer and construction expert who preferred anonymity says the land slide was most likely due to the saturated soil on the steep slope.
“I suspect the road was left that steep to avoid moving the houses up the slope. Since the soil has been dry, the slope can stay at that angle but once saturated then it would collapse. This could have been minimised or prevented by use of gabions which we use all the time to hold the soil. If a normal slope was used we would probably need to remove those houses. We often use a steep slope then we need support in front, something like a gabion or brick wall
“The construction of the road is guided by the design. So in this case we check first if the designer was happy with the construction while it was being built. If so then we point a finger at the designer.”
Keketsi, who toured the area to assess the extent of the damage caused by the landslide at Makibi’s home, said his office has been receiving reports of life-threatening disasters caused by the ‘abnormally heavy rains since the start of the summer season’, to a point where they are now running out of resources to provide immediate help.
He says upon receipt of reports of the unpleasant occurrences, in the past weekend alone, they were forced to suspend distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and deploy all their officers to different disasters.
He confirmed that four boys drowned in the Hlotse River and some of the DMA officers had to take part in the search process undertaken by the rescue police.
“We have been receiving news about many different life-threatening disasters in a short period of time and we are struggling to cope. We are too short-staffed to attend to all these disasters and are fast running out of resources. Covid-19 on its own is a disaster deserving priority, but this week we have had to postpone the distribution of vaccines because all our staff had emergencies to attend to,” Keketsi said.
The DMA deputy chief executive officer, ‘Makhotso Mahosi, said the authority is aware of all the destruction that has occurred and is likely to continue until March when the rains are predicted to subside.
Commenting on these disasters across the country, Mahosi cautioned that the DMA board and stakeholders would meet on Thursday to review all the reports from across the country, that are compiled by district disaster officers. These reports were intended to help identify means to assist the victims.
In an effort to curb the hunger disaster resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges facing summer cropping due to the heavy rains, the authority is currently buying farmers’ produce like maize and beans.
The grains stuff will be distributed to vulnerable households.
This initiative was informed by a study conducted by the authority, which estimated that the number of Basotho who will face severe hunger between the months of January and March 2022 is about 338 000.
“After taking note of these study results, DMA took it upon itself to try and mitigate the severity of the situation by meeting the vulnerable households halfway while at the same time boosting farmers’ morale by buying their maize and beans. So far we have bought 1481 farmers’ produce from across the country and will begin distribution to vulnerable homes soon after the process to mill maize has been done,” Mahosi said.
In Maseru district alone, several major roads, both gravel and tarred, leading into villages, have been destroyed in 11 community councils as reported by the DMA. Some bridges have been destroyed, leaving villagers trapped and unable to travel.
