Water being released to farming sector

WHILE the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCSS) has shown a slight decrease from 74.71% last week to 73.64% this week, the irrigation season has also begun, putting more pressure on the system.

The WCSS consists of six dams and also supplies bulk water to the City of Cape Town and other surrounding municipalities, such as Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Saldanha, Swartland, Berg River and Theewaterskloof.

The Department of Water and Sanitation in the Western Cape has started releasing irrigation water from both Theewaterskloof and Voelvlei dams.

The releases form part of the curtailed legal allocations of the agricultural sector and are applied within the existing gazetted agricultural use restrictions.

Releases from the Theewaterskloof Dam include either a direct release into the Riviersonderend River and/ or direct abstractions from the Theewaterskloof Dam and/or releases through the tunnel system to the Eerste River and also releases via the Wemmershoek Irrigation Outlet works into the upper Berg River just below Berg River Dam.

Rashid Khan, department regional head said the department started releasing water allocations for agricultural use from November 1.

“I encourage the agricultural sector to apply a cautionary approach over the next four weeks when making proportional applications for these releases, remembering that some of the farmers still require water at the end of the irrigation season by mid April 2019.”

The department aims to review the respective levels of restrictions on the agricultural, domestic and industrial sectors by the end of the month.

The department urges both the greater public and business to still take specific measures to observe their water demand management, as prescribed by their local municipalities.

“Water is Life, Sanitation is Dignity.”