Water Department shares worrying figures ahead of dry winter season
The Department of Water and Sanitation said the dry winter season will have a major impact on water levels.
WITH the dry winter months drawing near, the Department of Water and Sanitation in KwaZulu-Natal has called on residents to use water sparingly. The call to conserve comes after the weekly status report showed a marginal increase in dam levels this year. In a statement, the department said last week’s report recorded 72.1 per cent which barley climbed to 72.4 per cent this week.
The Umgeni Water Supply System with dams supplying water to the eThekwini Metro and surrounds, has increased marginally from 82.8 per cent to 83.1 per cent, while this time last year it recorded 69.8 per cent, a substantial increase from 60.9 per cent.
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The department is anticipating the dry winter season will have a major impact on water levels, said spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau.
“We have some districts which are still experiencing the effects of drought and this is a major concern for the department,” said Ratau.
Ratau said the districts include the Uthukela, Umzinyathi, Amajuba, Zululand, Uthungulu and Umgungundlovu areas. He added that the department has several ongoing short, medium and long term interventions designed to mitigate drought effects in those districts.
“One of the short-term measures is ensuring that the water tanks we provided this time last year, are always filled up with water in order to enable communities who continue to experience inconsistent water supply to have water,” he said.
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According to Ratau, one of the province’s largest dam, Albert-Falls has marginally increased from 52.3 per cent to 52.4 per cent while the Nagle Dam has declined from 85.3 per cent to 83.4 per cent.
He added that Inanda Dam is down from 101.1 per cent to 100.7 per cent and Midmar Dam is at 100.5 per cent from 100.1 per cent while Hazelmere Dam has increased from 53.8 per cent to 54.2 per cent.
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