Knysna is open for business.
That's the word from town authorities on Monday as damaged assessments continued and repair work on damaged infrastructure got underway.
Parts of the town are without power and water following last week's devastating fires which destroyed hundreds of structures and left at least seven people dead.
The coordinator for disaster management in Knysna, Richard Meyer, said in a voice note to the media that their main focus "for now" was on the Concordia area as well as area towards Sedgefield where the bulk of their resources have been deployed.
Meyer said that teams are also addressing any flare-ups around town, while efforts are also being made to rebuild informal structures destroyed in the fires.
"Our infrastructure is one of the priorities because we cannot build houses without having infrastructure. Then we also establishing working groups from a relief and humanitarian side that can run this in an effective way," he said.
Meyer said technical working groups will also be established to deal with the infrastructure requirements while work to rebuild some informal structures is already underway.
"Knysna is still open for business and we are trying our best to get everything back to normal," he said.
Meanwhile, Municipal spokesperson Fran Kirsten also appealed to the public to stop calling the municipality to inquire about damaged infrastructure.
She said "we are working on the infrastructure. We know that places don't have water and power. Eskom is in town as is Telkom. The public must stop phoning the municipality to ask about the water and electricity. They are clogging up our lines and we need the lines for emergencies should the fires flare," said Kirsten.
"We know the fires caused tremendous damage to the infrastructure of greater Knysna but we need to keep the lines open," she said.
