Drought lapping at feet of KZN: experts

AS DURBAN residents go allout to try to send water to the drought-stricken city of Cape Town as it fast approaches Day Zero, local experts warn that KwaZulu-Natal is not out of the woods itself.

The crisis is hitting hard with a flood of visitor cancellations, Cape Town Tourism chief Enver Duminy said yesterday. The city has also tightened restrictions to 50 litres a person from February 1, from the current 87 litres, as it faces the real risk of taps running dry from April 12.

The Gift of the Givers Foundation has started a campaign to receive water from those Durbanites who want to donate. Founder Imtiaz Sooliman said one group donated 10 000 5-litre bottles of water. He said, however, that donating money was the more practical option, because transporting large amounts of water was expensive.

Water would be transported by the foundation’s trucks and stored at SANDF warehouses. The organisation was also looking at transporting water by train, Sooliman said.

uMhlanga councillor Heinz de Boer said he had first-hand experience of how drought affected people because he lived near Hazelmere Dam, which often had cuts when it was at its worst in KZN.

According to Shami Harichunder, spokesperson at Umgeni Water, KZN is not out of the woods, although with more than 50mm of rain falling in catchment areas last weekends dam levels were improving.

Midmar Dam stood at 83.71% yesterday, up from 58.92% at this time last year, while the Spring Grove Dam, which feeds it, stands at 74.3%, up from 54.28%. Albert Falls Dam remains critical at 20.21%, down from 25.76%, while Hazelmere is at 60.33%, down from 66.08%.

Harrichunder said collectively the amount of water in the Mgeni system was 57%, based on the average of the five dams and the weir. This is well below the 75% required to meet the full demand.

He said it was imperative to reduce consumption. – African News Agency (ANA)/Staff Reporter.