Kwena Dam near Lydenburg dips below 100%

The Kwena Dam on the Crocodile River system has dipped below the 100% mark after consecutive months above full capacity.

This is according to the latest Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) weekly state of reservoirs report of August 14. It shows the water levels in the Kwena Dam dropped from 100.2% to 99.9% over the past week.

Other dams, particularly in the Lowveld, were listed in the report. Some recorded drops and others remained unchanged in water levels. Only the Da Gama and Vygeboom dams recorded improvements, increasing from 99.8% to 100.3% and 100.3% to 100.4%, respectively.

Dams that joined the Kwena Dam in recording declines in water levels include:
Driekoppies Dam from 100.2% to 100.1%
Longmere Dam from 100.4% to 100.0%
Inyaka Dam from 100.3% to 100.2%
Nooitgedacht Dam from 94.5% to 93.2%
Ohrigstad Dam from 84.5% to 82.9%

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Dams that recorded no change are:
Blyderivierpoort Dam – 100.2%
Buffelskloof Dam – 100.2%
Klipkopjes Dam – 99.6%
Witklip Dam – 100.2%
Primkop Dam – 101.1%

The DWS weekly report also shows that Mpumalanga as a whole recorded an average dam level decline from 97.4% to 97.2%, whereas in the Water Management Areas (WMAs), the Olifants WMA dropped from 89.5% to 89.2%, and the Inkomati-Usuthu WMA also dropped from 97.5% to 97.2%.

The three districts of the province recorded drops in water levels. Ehlanzeni dropped from 99.9% to 99.7%, Gert Sibande dropped from 97.4% to 94.4% and Nkangala dropped from 99.5% to 99.4%.

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The Department of Water and Sanitation has encouraged the public to be more conservative in their water use and continue using the available water wisely and sparingly. To also take into consideration that South Africa is a water scarce country where every drop counts as water has no substitute.