Drought conditions not over yet
It could take as long as five years for South Africa to recover from the current drought
With the Vaal Dam levels decreasing by at least one per cent per week, our water resources are dwindling – fast.
The Deputy Director General of the Department of Water and Sanitation, Trevor Balzer said, “It will take anything from two to three years and even up to five years to recover from the current drought. Once dam levels slip below 20 per cent, we pull in strategic users like Eskom and others in a bid to save water.”
The Member of the Electoral Committee for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Paul Mashatile, said that the sweltering heat and lack of sufficient rainfall pose an imminent danger of an even worse water scarcity and called for drastic savings measures to be implemented by every water user.
“Gauteng may very well be declared a water disaster area if drastic measures are not put into effect as a matter of urgency,” Mashatile said.
South Africa is classified as a water-stressed country, receiving an average of only 492 millimetres of annual rainfall, compared to the rest of the world, which averages 985 millimetres. This amount of rainfall is also unevenly distributed across South Africa, causing alternating periods of droughts and floods which affects the amount of water. Add to that hot, dry conditions and you have a very high evaporation rates in some areas.
We have recently seen a few areas receiving the welcome relief of heavy rainfalls throughout the country, but this is not enough to indicate that the water crisis is something of the past. The recent rain and hail storms may have offered a respite, but a constant rainfall is needed to recover from the drought.
Heavy rainfall may appear to deposit a lot of water into the ground, but because the soil in most areas has been dry for so long, water cannot be fully absorbed. An increased ability to retain water will be seen with a lighter, more consistent rainfall spread out over time.
Where it rains is also important. It may rain cats and dogs all over the country, but the catchment areas need to be filled in order for us to fully recover. The Orange River in the Free State is the largest catchment area for the Vaal Dam, so rainfall in the Free State area will be far more beneficial than localised storms.
Use the opportunity during rainstorms to collect the rainwater in plastic buckets to use on your garden, wash the car or flush the toilet – thus reducing municipal water usage.
Remember, the Vaal Dam level is currently just above 25 per cent – and until safe levels are reached, every citizen needs to do his or her bit to save water.
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