Beaufort West water woes: Gift of the Givers teams withdraw relief efforts

Gift of the Givers teams are withdrawing from Beaufort West, where residents have been struggling with water issues over the past two weeks.

The Karoo town's water infrastructure suffered severe damage at the start of this month.

The Beaufort West Municipality explained to EWN that the problems started when the province experienced adverse weather conditions, amidst several warnings from the South African Weather Service.

Precautionary measures were put in place for strong, damaging winds - but municipal officials were not expecting rainfall that ultimately resulted in the Gamka Dam overflowing.

Acting Municipal Manager Frans Sabbat said on Friday, the 4th of September, the Department of Water and Sanitation's telemetric system detected extremely high levels at the Gamka Dam and municipal teams were alerted in the early hours of the morning.