Brace for a wet weekend, says weather service

The country has experienced very little rain of late, but the South African Weather Service said yesterday we might be in for a wet weekend.

Meanwhile, a hopeful water and sanitation department (WSD) said rain would be helpful for dam levels if it fell in catchment areas.

Weather service forecaster Kgolofelo Mahlangu said there was a greater chance for rain in the eastern parts of the country, including parts of the Western Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape this week.

However, she said it would not be a significant amount of rain as it would likely be under 5mm. She said the real rain would happen this weekend as between 10-20mm of rain was expected to fall throughout Saturday and Sunday.

In contrast, she said the western part of the country would receive very little rain.

WSD spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said “during this dry season we are told that we would be receiving below average rain until December”.

“It would be helpful to know where this rain will fall and hopefully it will be in the catchment areas.”

He said the dam levels around the country were still averaging between 60-61% but they continued to decline at an acceptable rate of 1% per week.

Ratau said anything beyond that would be worrisome and that for now “there is no need to panic about any water shortages. There are initiatives in place depending on the severity of the water issue in various parts of the country”.

He said he knew the City of Cape Town was meeting with government soon to discuss its water issues, while the City of Johannesburg and City of Tshwane had already issued level two restrictions to regulate water usage and consumption.

Ratau said talks on the Vaal River intervention were also ongoing as government was engaging with stakeholders – including the Water Research Commission and the Agriculture Research Council – to improve the waste water treatment works network system that was connected to the Vaal River system.

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