Start saving water, or our supplies could run out

An alert issued yesterday by the department of water affairs and sanitation (DWS) about shortages in the Orange River catchment area became the latest threat to Water Affairs Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s dreaded “day zero phenomenon”.

Just two weeks ago, Sisulu warned the country the “situation is very serious” and it’s become a major juggling act to keep water flowing.

On Friday last week, the department of water affairs and sanitation released water from Saulspoort Dam to benefit areas such as Frankfort, Tweeling and Reitz “to augment dwindling water levels in the Free State”.

“This week, Saulspoort Dam is in a better state, at 80% compared to most dams in the province, and this release will be a big relief to the three areas as they were becoming water stressed,” DWS tweeted on Friday.

According to a statement on Twitter, the Orange River at Oranjedraai near Lesotho had stopped flowing and the Kraai River was still not flowing. Aliwal North will be struggling to supply water while the Caledon and Little Caledon Rivers were also not flowing.

The DWS stated that the Welbedacht Dam had dropped to about 20% full and water had been released from Knellpoort Dam to augment Welbedacht. Water was still being transferred from Knellpoort to Rustfontein Dam, which had the knock-on effect of rapidly dropping the water level in Knellpoort.

“The tunnels between Katse and Mohale Dams were opened and water is flowing into Katse Dam,” the DWS said.

Graphic: Costa Matola

According to its website, South Africans consumed around 237 litres per day, more than the world average of 173 litres.

“Coupled with that, the country as a whole has not recovered from the 2014 drought, with dam levels dropping drastically in most parts of the country. Parts of Eastern Cape and Limpopo have been severely affected by the drought with water resources becoming stressed,” DWS stated.

“The heatwave, exacerbated by the scorching sun, is causing enormous evaporation of water from the country’s dams and this has an adverse impact on country’s water security.”

The South African Weather Service was more blunt, saying in its November seasonal forecast “large parts” of South Africa were in the grip of an extreme drought, “in particular areas over Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape”.

The weather service further warned “southern African farmers, water managers and government entities need to prepare for impacts associated with the likelihood of below-normal rainfall and above-normal temperatures during the summer of 2019-20”.

In an article on hortgro.co.za, adjunct professor at Wits Mike Muller told the Agri SA water symposium recently held in Somerset West that SA’s capability to manage its water resources had declined.

“Government should take the lead in the management of water, but it is in the interest of agricultural industries to help them do it. Where is the sense of urgency and action when it comes to upgrading SA’s water infrastructure?” Muller reportedly said.

The weather service’s weekly state of the reservoirs for November 4 covered SA’s water management areas. These are the Limpopo; Olifants; Inkomati-Usuthu; Pongola-Mtamvuna; Vaal Major; Orange; Mzimvubu-Tsitsikamma; Breede-Gouritz; Berg-Olifants and Swaziland, and together they were down to 60.2% full compared to 61.1% the week before and 71.3% last year.

In the middle of all this, the “lightning strike” of the Rooiwal wastewater treatment works near Hammanskraal had left large parts of the community without water for weeks, and raw sewage was being pumped into the Vaal system thanks to municipalities’ failing water treatment works.

The Integrated Vaal River System will also be affected for the next two months by the shutdown of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project for maintenance.

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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