WITH already low dam levels dropping quickly, water restrictions have been raised from Level 1 to Level 3 status with immediate effect.
The instruction came from Department of Water and Sanitation (DWA) Chief Engineer Norman Ward on Tuesday at a meeting of water users within the uMhlathuze Catchment area.
Level 3 requires a 70% cut in water usage by the agriculture sector, 30% by domestic users and 10% by industry.
The status of dam levels in the region indicates the severity of the current drought:
• Goedertrouw (Phobane) is down from 58% to 48% capacity. Last year it stood at 91.4%
• Pongolapoort is at 62.3% compared to 77.4% last year
• Hluhluwe Dam is at 55.8% and was 76.5% last year.
• Klipfontein Dam, which serves Ulundi and Vryheid, is 74.8% full compared to 99.4% a year ago.
Industry and agriculture were praised for their efforts in reducing water consumption.
With winter approaching and thus less need for irrigation, the agricultural sector indicated it would be able to cope with the restrictions
A task team was set up on Tuesday to address short-term operational issues.
Concern was expressed that the community at large is not aware of the water restriction implications and instructions and penalties for failure to comply.
Responsibility to communicate that information rests on the local municipality, which was not present at the meeting.
Residents of eShowe are already feeling the brunt of restrictions after uThungulu District Municipal Manager, Mandla Nkosi, circulated a letter this week stating that water will only be supplied to residents between 4-8am and 4-8pm.
With the Rutledge and Ehlazi dams that supply the town virtually empty, the crisis has been compounded by general maintenance of the pump station on Phobane Dam.
To preserve the little available water resource, the following actions were issued:
• No irrigation of gardens
• No use of hosepipes to wash vehicles
• No filling or topping up of swimming pools
• No cleaning of surfaces requiring high volumes of water.
