SA dam levels decrease after heavy rainfalls cease

South Africa’s dam levels are lower than they were at the same time last week.

According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, their weekly status of dams has indicated a moderate decrease. This is after the heavy rainfalls in some parts of the country in recent weeks died down.

The department’s Wisane Mavasa confirmed that this week’s overall storage capacity of the country’s water level was at 97.5%, a relatively small reduction from last week’s 99.9%.

“All the country’s 14 water supply systems have recorded some sort of downward movements in water levels,” he said in a statement.

He confirmed that only two provinces in the county were in the improvement segment. These were the Northern Cape which increased substantially from 108.4% to 115.0% and North West moving slightly up from 87.2% to 88%.

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Meanwhile, the overall provincial water storage indicates that seven provinces have recorded decreases in water levels. KwaZulu-Natal dropped slightly from 97.6% to 91.9%, Free State declined from 109.6% to 107.1%, Gauteng decreased from 102.1% to 101.2%, Limpopo went down from 91.6% to 90.6%, Mpumalanga dropped from 101.4% to 100.1%, Eastern Cape diminished from 80.5% to 77.9% and Western Cape declined from 49.7% to 49.2%.

Water issues in SA

Despite the flooding and heavy rainfalls that the country has experienced over the last few months, water issues continue to irk residents in a number of municipalities.

Dr Lester Goldman, a water analysis expert, told the Citizen that the country’s local municipalities are in crisis and the recent Green Drop reports indicate the relatively poor performance.

“Municipalities must improve revenue collection and use this to maintain infrastructure as well as reducing leaks,” said Goldman.

He said that these municipalities needed to urgently address the issues of infrastructure, planning and skills that are crippling the country’s water supply.

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The City of Tswhane, however, on Tuesday announced that most of the city’s reservoirs have recovered, and water supply has been restored to most of the areas which had experienced water supply challenges from last week.

“The water supply hiccup was caused by Rand Water’s maintenance and repair works on their newly installed S4 water pipeline and the act of vandalism to the water utility’s valves on the meter that supplies the City of Ekurhuleni, and the pumping stations which supply some of Tshwane’s reservoirs.

“Both the maintenance work and the damage to the utility’s supply component led to no water supply from Rand Water’s Vlakfontein Reservoir to Tshwane, causing water levels at more than 20 of the city’s reservoirs to drop.

“This morning, Rand Water informed the city that its reservoir levels have gradually improved, and their supply system is stabilising.

The City said, however, that Mooikloof, Grootfontein and other high-lying areas such as Monument Park, Elarduspark and Waterkloof Ridge are still without water due to Rand Water’s low reservoir levels.

“The city has in turn requested the water utility to assist by channeling more water to the pipeline that supplies these areas,” it added.

Additional reporting by Stephen Tau.