National dam levels decline further as rainfall continues to slow down
The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly status of reservoirs demonstrate that the country’s water levels have recorded a notable decrease when compared to the same period last week. This week, the overall storage capacity of the country’s water level sits at 94.6%, a sharp reduction from last week’s 97.5%, and an improvement from last year’s 92.5%.
The country’s 12 Water Supply Systems have recorded some sort of downward movements in water levels, with the exception of Amathole which recorded an increase and Umhlathuze which remains in the same level as last week.
The Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) which supplies a number of provinces dropped from 103.4% to 101.0%, Orange System plummeted significantly from 108.9% last week to 102,8%, Algoa with dams in the drought-stricken Nelson Mandela Bay reduce faintly from 12.1% to 11.9% and Cape Town Water Supply System also declined from 56.0% to 55.2%.
Other Systems are Crocodile East dropping to 101.1%, Luvuvhu slightly above 100% at 102.3%, Umhlathuze sits at 100.5%, Amathole 102.2% an increment from last week’s 100.6%, Bloemfontein 99.4%, Butterworth moved slightly down from 100.3% to 99.9%, Crocodile West declined from 95.9% to 95.0%, Umgeni decreased from 102.3% to 101.8% and Polokwane reduced from 103.4% to 102.1%.
The overall provincial water storage indicates that 07 provinces have recorded downwards movements in water levels namely, KwaZulu-Natal slightly dropped from 91.9% to 89.6%, Free State declined from 107.1% to 102.2%, Gauteng decreased faintly from 101.2% to 101.0%, Western Cape dropped from 49.2% to 48.8%, Northern Cape dropped notably from 115.0% to 95.1% and Limpopo reduced somewhat from 90.6% to 90.4%.
Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape are both sitting on the same level as last week, the former 100.1% and the latter on 77.9% respectively. Northern Cape which increased substantially from 108.4% to 115.0% and North West moving slightly up from 87.2% to 88.0%.
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%. The department’s flood control release at Vaal highlights that the last flood gate that remain open will be closed and all the five (5) operational valves will be opened at 10H00.
Bloemhof which also part of IVRS has slightly decreased from 106.0% to 99.7%, outflow from the dam will be kept at 1000m3/s.
Gariep Dam which is part of Orange River Water Supply System has recorded a decrease from 108.8% to 101.3%, Vanderkloof Dam moved down slightly from 109.1 to 105.1%.
The Department of Water and Sanitation continues to reiterate its call to water users to be circumspect in the manner in which they utilise water as rainfall in most parts of the country let up.
Source: Government of South Africa