THE long-range forecast of heavy rains in January has not come to fruition and the water situation is getting more desperate by the day.
The Goedertrouw Dam, with a full storage capacity of 301.3 million cubic metres, is presently standing at 51%.
To put this in perspective, last year this time the dam was 93.6% full.
Farmers are reporting this being the worst drought since 1932 with three worst drought events having occurred in the last 20 years.
The 2013 rainfall for eShowe was 1 578mm, while the 2014 figure was 769mm giving a shortfall on the 2013 rainfall of over 800mm.
But it is not only rainfall affecting eShowe’s water supply.
uThungulu’s Fikile at the eShowe Technical Office says they will be shutting down the water supply to eShowe during load shedding.
This is being done because they cannot pump raw water from the dams.
For further enquiries contact the eShowe Technical Office at 035 4745881/2999 or the uThungulu call centre on 0800 203602
