Firstly, people have been removed from unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Their pit latrines seep raw human waste into the river daily. Children were playing in water which has become an ideal breeding ground for cholera and other infectious diseases. Riverbanks cannot attenuate floods if they are denuded of vegetation and used for housing. We commend Gauteng's decision to go beyond simply removing the shacks to proactively rehabilitating the riverbanks because riparian vegetation is essential for stabilising the riverbanks.
Vegetation also helps slow water flow and reduce erosion which are vital during times of flooding.
Engelbrecht adds that some shacks were built on top of an old rubbish dump, which is gradually subsiding. We are going to convert the riverbanks into green open spaces, which people can use for recreation. In fact moving people out of the one in 50 year flood line is for the greater social good. It's a basic environmental, indeed a common sense principle, that you don't develop within the one in 50 year flood line. If you do, you end up with the current Jukskei debacle - such bad riverbank degradation that floods are amplified tenfold because the water rages through wide, straight channels instead of flowing through a meandering river with sturdy riparian vegetation.