Double price of too much

UNBELIEVABLY the Vaal Dam will probably reach 100 percent capacity within days, while the lower lying Bloemhof Dam is already sitting at 108 percent. It seems only yesterday that we were on the cusp of water restrictions, now though we are faced with the possibility of flooding, while parts of the country are still facing increasingly brutal cuts with no end in sight. Cape Town is a particular case in point.

The problem is that too much is often, ironically, as much of a crisis as too little. Yesterday morning, the Vaal Dam was warnign it would have to open two of its sluice gates, while the full-to-bursting Bloemhof Dam intends opening eight.

The Department of Water Affairs is often forced to do this to ensure that the integrity of the dam walls are not compromised, because too full dams end up with water cascading over the sides and potentially destroying the entire retain wall, with catastrophic consequences.

The sudden onrush of water down the Vaal system, all the way down to the confluence with the Orange at the Northern Cape town of Douglas though is also incredibly damaging.

Riverside dwellings and agricultural equipment get damaged, often irreparably, to say nothing of the crops on tens of thousands of hectares of arable land that are either ruined or washed away entirely.

We are beginning to feel the effects of climate change in the most demonstrable way possible. We need to find ways of husbanding the water we receive.

Sadly at the moment, we face the double jeopardy of having to let it flow to the sea, creating havoc on the way and then having nothing when we need it most. This can’t continue. We can’t afford it.