Ahead of the opening of two more gates at Vaal Dam, warnings were issued to the public through various media platforms and an official media statement issued by the department.
a) Development of a flood preparedness plan takes place every year before the rainy season. The implementation of flood monitoring and forecasting systems is a continuous process that the department uses to monitor the state of water flow in the rivers. This ultimately informs decision making regarding issuance of early warnings and opening of flood gates whenever necessary.
b) The alarm measures implemented and exposed to the communities around the dam include issuing of official media statements, dam operators post warnings in social media groups of exposed communities about impending flood control releases and the inevitable increase of water levels downstream.
This ensures that these warnings reach communities swiftly once decisions to release water are confirmed to allow sufficient lead time to react to the interventions.