The Crisis: 54 Days Underwater

For the past 54 days, the community of Colchester in the Sundays River Valley has been trapped in a relentless nightmare. Following severe flooding, stagnant water has not receded. For over three weeks, the floodwaters have been physically inside people's homes, sitting ankle to knee deep in their living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens.

The pump is going to cost about 30,000 R or $2,600 CAD the remainder would go to supplies, cleaning, and repairs for the families effected

​Families are sleeping in damp beds, with their furniture, appliances, and entire lives propped up on bricks just to keep them from ruin. The humidity is so severe that water constantly drips from the ceilings. Worse still, the sewage pits have overflowed, meaning the stagnant water sitting in their yards and homes is contaminated. Residents are unable to use their own toilets, cannot do laundry, and are living in a severe health hazard plagued by mosquitoes.

​A Community Abandoned

When the flooding first happened, the residents didn't just wait around. The community pooled their own money, hired a private pump, and successfully started clearing the water. However, the local municipality intervened and forced them to stop due to land dispute issues, promising they would bring in their own municipal pumps to solve the problem.

​They brought a smaller pump that ultimately failed, and since then, the municipality has completely abandoned the neighborhood. Residents have been left entirely alone for weeks without a single phone call, wellness check, or delivery of basic supplies like bread or drinking water. Note that these homes were all built on plots fully approved by the municipality, with no warnings given to the buyers that they were building on a 100-year flood line.

​What they Need: A Way Out

The residents of Colchester are completely trapped and have asked for one basic lifeline: We need a massive pump, and we need it to run 24/7.

​All funds raised by this campaign will go directly toward the immediate, desperate needs of the Maclennan family and Colchester community, which include:

​Securing high-capacity, heavy-duty pumps to run continuously until the water is cleared from the residential basin.

​Sanitation supplies and safe drinking water.

​Long-term relief, as experts estimate it will take an additional 6 months for the deep mud to dry out enough for residents to even begin repairing their yards and foundations.

​These families have lost nearly everything and have been left to fend for themselves in contaminated water. Any contribution, no matter how small, will help bring dry land and dignity back to Colchester.