SA recovering from drought but crisis is ongoing

SA’s drought outlook has improved, but restrictive measures on water use will remain in some places as the country counts the costs of one of worst dry spells on record.

In 2016, SA recorded its driest year on record. At its worst, the drought devastated dam levels to record lows, highlighting the fact that SA is a waterscarce country.

But there has been a respite, with recent rains lifting capacity with the country’s 211 dams rising to 71% in February.

Gauteng, the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal benefited the most from the rainfall, but the water situation in the Western Cape remains precarious, with its dams levels having dropped to just more than 30%.

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has appealed for the metro to be declared a disaster area.

A joint meeting of the portfolio committee on water and sanitation and the portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs was briefed by officials from the departments of co-operative governance and traditional affairs; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; water and sanitation; and the Treasury.

Department of Water and Sanitation chief operating officer Trevor Balzer said drought recovery would take a while and that caution had to be exercised on water use.

“We monitor 211 major storage dams around the country. Our dams have increased 11.1%. While this is something to be excited about, it is still a matter to be very cautious about in the long term,” said Balzer.

While 65 dams across the country were at 100% or more, areas including the Western Cape system had seen their capacity reduced and Amathole District in the Eastern Cape still had serious water shortages.

Balzer said the use of water tankers in drought-affected areas had lasted longer than originally intended.

“Tankering is not considered a solution to drought. It is a good emergency measure but it is not a sustainable supply system.”

The Department of Agriculture said the El Niño system was transitioning and was expected to remain in the neutral phase for at least the first half of 2017.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s Abigail Thabethe said it had allocated R174m of the R463m approved for drought interventions in 2015-16.