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The Department of Water and Sanitation has learned of a viral video making rounds on social media, alleging that Shongweni Dam located west of Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal has collapsed due to flooding in the province.

The Department is denouncing this as untrue, and an unnecessary ploy by reckless social media users meant to cause panic amid a tragedy affecting residents of KwaZulu-Natal.

The dam is equipped with 10 Hydroplus fuse gates which are designed to "tip" and fail in sequence to avoid catastrophic failure of the entire dam. Gate 1 on the far-left and Gate 2 on the far-right started tipping when the dam reached a specific level; this is part of the design and is therefore a safety measure.

“Had this not occurred, the dam was going to be subjected to more pressure which would threaten the stability of the concrete wall and possible overtopping of the non-overspill crest. So, it is behaving as it should during flooding conditions as presently experienced in parts of KZN,” said Wally Ramokopa, a Director in the Dam Safety Regulation Unit within the Department.

“A team of experienced dam safety office engineers is on high alert to monitor the situation at the dam, there is absolutely no need to be alarmed,” Ramokopa said.

The rest of the eight gates will fail should the water level rise higher than 2.4m above the full supply level at intervals of 0.1mitres until the last gate fuses, and this should happen in a specific sequence. 

Ramokopa admitted that the dam’s storage capacity will unfortunately be reduced if such an eventuality occurs until the fuse gates are restored.

The Department also reiterated its plea to residents to steer away from riverbanks and overflowing dams as persistent rains are still forecast in the province and some parts of the country during the Easter Weekend.

Issued by the Department of Water & Sanitation