Non-profit organisations yesterday distributed 5560 blankets and about 11120 meals to more than 5500 people living in informal settlements in Cape Town who have been affected by rain.
Ebrahim Smith, disaster co-ordinator for the Mustadafin Foundation, said the worst affected area was Zola Section in Khayelitsha.
Here, according to statistics provided by the city, about 3000 people were affected.
Smith worked in Khayelitsha with his team and said shacks were flooded up to residents' shins.
"Because their homes are built in low-lying areas, the water comes up from the bottom. The water can't drain and obviously it rises up into their homes.
"A lot of these shacks are not built on a foundation, so everything is wet in their homes," said Smith.
But Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, acting head of the city's Disaster Operations Centre, denied any flooding.
"They are just experiencing discomfort because they are living in wetland or low-lying areas," said Solomons-Johannes.
"The city has made attempts to relocate them, but they don't want to move. That is the big problem."
He said there had been a "significant reduction" in flooding in the last three years.
In 2009, 11500 informal structures were affected, in 2010 that number dropped to 3400, and last year only 2600 structures were affected.
When the city announced this year's "w inter p lan" last month to prepare for storm damage such as flooding, mayoral committee member for s afety and s ecurity JP Smith said its anti-land invasion unit has prevented many people from building homes in flood-prone areas.
Despite the number of problems caused by the rain in the city, Jan Vermeulen, senior forecaster for the SA Weather Service, said it did not record abnormally high rainfall.
He said the service did not expect heavy rainfall for the remainder of the week.
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