Alarm raised over falling dam levels
WITH falling dam levels, Umgeni Water and eThekwini Municipality are urging residents to play their part in conserving water because empty dams are a real possibility in the coming months.
Shami Harichunder, spokesperson for Umgeni Water, said Albert Falls dam was at 25%, and heavy rains were needed for the dam to fill up.
“If it doesn’t rain by September, Albert Falls dam could run dry,” he said.
Overflow from Midmar Dam could supplement Albert Falls, but Midmar was at 59%, being supplemented by pumped water from Spring Grove Dam.
“Midmar Dam hasn’t overflowed between three to four years, so the situation is quite severe,” he said, and added that the pumping of Spring Grove dam was not sustainable in the long term because its water would run dry too.
Harichunder said their predictions were that rains could fall around April to June.
“Also, people need to remember that the rains falling along the coast doesn’t help to fill the dams; the rain needs to fall in the catchment areas of the dams,” he said.
Should heavy rains not fall, the 15% restrictions will be increased.
Meanwhile, eThekwini Municipality said it was constantly monitoring water consumers and where instances of contravention occur, they would be dealt with accordingly. The city did not want to reveal whether people had been fined for using too much water.
eThekwini said it had stopped the use of hosing, and had resorted to only sweeping, brushing and using disinfectant as an alternative in its pools department.
“With regards to watering plants, we have restricted the usage of watering to filling water tankers, even though we do not use potable water for watering. Use of fresh water hoses has been limited to sites where it is not cost-effective to transport water.
“The city is also switching to indigenous or water-savvy plants which do not require continuous watering. It tries to use salt water instead of fresh water to clean paths along the beachfront but this may cause problems because the salt may corrode some connections. This has been put on hold until the city finds a better solution,” said municipal spokesperson Tozi Mthethwa.