MASERU — The heavy rains that pounded Maseru on Monday left roads and some shops in the city flooded.
Some shops at LNDC Centre were flooded.
As some people were taking shelter from the pouring rains some shop assistants and owners were busy battling to scoop out flood water from their shops.
Monday’s biggest scare, however, was at the new Pioneer Shopping Centre’s ground floor where water that came in through an air conditioning unit on the roof almost flooded the sitting area at the food-court that houses Steers, KFC and Debonairs’ Pizza.
People had to move from the area as workers at the three food outlets battled to control the flooding.
Andre Bothma a director of Moruo Developments a company that manages the mall said this week’s floods were “a special case” as they occur once in a very long time.
“These type of heavy rains were last seen in 1988 and we did not anticipate that something of this nature could occur,” said Bothma.
He said the water entered the building through an air-conditioning service duct that was on the roof.
“There is a concrete slab where the air-conditioning system is placed, and water from the roof goes through before it goes down the water level rose very quickly and then entered into the air-conditioning duct which goes to the lower floor level,” said Bothma.
Bothma said the flooding was not due to any structural problems in the building.
“The heavy rains that were experienced on Monday were abnormal but we have since raised the height of the duct so that something like this does not happen again.”
He said the ceiling around the sitting area was damaged.
“We are sorry that our customers had to endure the flooding and we are sorry for the inconvenience caused,” he added.
