Dam is filling up
Witbank Dam’s level is rising, but we are not out of the woods just yet.
Witbank Dam’s level is rising, but we are not out of the woods just yet.
On November 15 the dam was 54.4% full, a far cry from the below 40% just a little over a week ago.
The dam has risen with close to 15% over the last 10 days and the inflow are still positive.
“With the current weather patterns we are hopeful for more rain and trust that the dam will keep on rising,” said a very relieved Mr Theo van Vuuren, municipal manager.
“We are far from out of the woods though. The dam is still at its lowest level for this time of year if compared with the last 10 years. Ideally we should enter a winter season at 95% and therefore we still need a lot of inflow. Without rain we utilise more or less 3% of the dam’s capacity per month. But, it looks much more positive now than a month ago.”
The dam at Farm Roodepoort Rietspruit is full. (Photo: Vlooi Boynton).
The main catchment area of the dam is the Steenkoolspruit from Ga Nala, from Bethal and Rietspruit Dam and Wolvenkrans from the mines. The Rietspruit Dam is overflowing and this boosts Witbank Dam.
“A problem we are increasingly experiencing is increased heavy metal pollution as the rains are washing these in from upstream mines. This places purification processes under more strain and we expect some problems. Fortunately we upgraded the systems over the past year and are coping much better with this than before.”
“The rain also benefited our neighbours and currently we are not supplying any water to them. But in terms of legislation we still need to release water to boost the Olifants River. We will hold back on this for as long as possible,” Van Vuuren assured.
Rietspruit Dam is also full. (Photo: Vlooi Boynton).
Ms Vlooi Boynton from Farm Roodepoort Rietspruit said their dam is full.
“Rietspruit Dam also followed suit and is flowing into the Olifants River and Witbank Dam,” said Boynton.
Mr Dries Bothma, who has been taking rain meter readings for the past 40 years said for November eMalahleni was blessed with 143mm of rain.
Even with the good rains lately the current level two water restrictions will remain in place until the situation improves significantly.
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