After suffering a long and severe drought, the small town of Beaufort West in the Karoo has finally received rain, bringing relief to farmers and residents in the area.
Beaufort West has been crippled by the drought that also caused the Gamka Dam to run bone dry in October 2018. Due to the severity of the drought and barren land, livestock in the area had starved to death, and since then the area has been appealing for donations. Gift of the Givers assisted the town in 2017 – supplying its inhabitants with water as they faced ‘Day Zero’ in November 2017.
Residents of Beaufort West were forced by the extreme drought to rely on borehole and bottled water, with even some boreholes in the town running dry. The much-needed rain arrived in the area on Monday and continues to fall today, with a dry day forecast for tomorrow, Thursday April 25, and the following few days. These will be followed by more rainfall, with possible thundershowers predicted in the area for April 30.
Locals have rejoiced at receiving rain and shared footage of flooding caused by the heavy downpour on social media.
The Karoo National Park shared the news of the rain and referred to it as “showers of blessings”.
Showers of blessings for Karoo National Park. 21mm of rainfall over the weekend and it’s still coming down. pic.twitter.com/q55WwMaGZk
— SANParksKarooNP (@SANParksKrNP) April 23, 2019
Karoo Nasionale park in Beaufort Wes 23 April 14:40 @Amorersg pic.twitter.com/OlRoQs9Tyu
— Susanna Dauth (@DauthCS) April 23, 2019
Picture: Twitter, SANParks Karoo National Park