The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly status of reservoirs demonstrate that the country’s water levels are in a continual downswing when compared to the same period last week. This week, the overall storage capacity of the country’s water level sits at 93.3%, a minor reduction from last week’s 93.9%, and a sharp decline from last year’s 96.4%.

While the storage capacity remains in comfortable levels, the recent lessening of the country’s water levels is attributed to the fact that rainfall in most parts of the country has faded as we approach the winter dry season.

The country’s eleven (11) Water Supply Systems have recorded downward movements in water levels and the remaining three (03) have recorded some sort of increments namely; Crocodile West increased slightly from 98.5% last week to 98.8%, Cape Town expanded from 57.9% to 58.8% and Umhlathuze improved marginally from 100.1% to 100.2%.

The Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) which supplies a number of provinces dropped from 100.5% to 100.0%, Orange System lessen from 100.4% last week to 98.8%, Algoa with dams in the drought-stricken Nelson Mandela Bay reduce faintly from 13.6% to 13.5% and Butterworth Supply System also declined from 100.0% to 99.5%.

Other Systems are Crocodile East faintly dropping to 100.3%, Luvuvhu declined from 101.3% last week to 101.1%, Amathole’s 98.8% is a reduction from last week’s 99.4%, Bloemfontein 98.1%, Umgeni decreased from 99.8% to 99.4% and Polokwane reduced from 101.1% to 100.9%.

The overall provincial water storage indicates that seven (07) provinces have recorded downwards movements in water levels namely; KwaZulu-Natal slightly dropped from 90.9% to 90.7%, Free State declined from 100.6% to 99.6%, Eastern Cape dropped slightly from 77.4% to 77.2%, Gauteng decreased faintly from 99.7% to 99.4%, Mpumalanga declined from 99.0% to 98.8% and Northern Cape also record a decrease from 85.3% to 84.6%.

Western Cape and North West are the only provinces that have recorded increment from 50.8% to 51.2% and 89.5% to 89.7% respectively.

Vaal Dam which is part of the IVRS has recorded a considerable decrease, this week it has declined to 102.5% from last week’s 109.6%. Bloemhof which also part of IVRS has slightly decreased from 102.7% to 101.8%.

Gariep Dam which is part of Orange River Water Supply System has recorded a decrease from 100.6% to 98.4% and Vanderkloof Dam moved down slightly from 100.1% to 99.6%.

The Department of Water and Sanitation continues to urge water users to utilise water sparingly since minimal rainfall is anticipated during winter season with the exception of some parts of Western Cape which normally experience rainfall in winter.

For more information, contact:

Wisane Mavasa

Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation

Cell: 060 561 8935

Source: Government of South Africa