Rainfall too meagre to impact on dam levels

THE DEPARTMENTof Water and Sanitation (DWS) said the current rainfalls were having “some slight impact on the country’s dam levels”, but more rain would be welcome to counter the effects of the drought.

DWS spokesman Sputnik Ratau said the current rains had raised dam levels by 0.2 percent, with the dam levels going from 53.5 percent last week to 53.7 percent on Wednesday. However, the levels were a far cry from last year’s level which stood at 79.5 percent in the same month.

All the provinces, he said, except the Western Cape and Free State, showed a “slight increase in average dam levels over the last week”. Lesotho’s Katse Dam experienced an increase of 1.9 percent to 65.7 percent, and in the Free State, Sterkfontein Dam rose from 81.1 percent to 88.3 percent.

Also in the Free State, the Gariep Dam experienced a water level drop from 53.3 percent to 52.6 percent, “largely due to Eskom generating power at the dam”.

Hazelmere, in KwaZulu-Natal, increased from 33.2 percent to 34.3 percent, but in the Western Cape, the Voëlvlei Dam dropped from 22.2 percent to 20.8 percent.

Referring to KwaZulu-Natal’s current water crisis, Ratau said a 15 percent water restriction had been recommended for the province’s Umgeni system.

Ratau said dams in the North West increased from 46.4 percent to 51.1 percent, but that water levels in the Western Cape, which were at 36.6 percent, remained a concern. He said “it must be borne in mind that it is the dams in the winter rainfall area which are low”.

Ratau said the forecast for the next two to three months, according to the department’s forecasters, was “very bleak” as it was expected there would be “below average rainfall expected through to May and above normal temperatures for the remainder of summer into winter”.

He said the forecasters indicated that El Niño was showing signs of weakening and expected the weather phenomenon causing drought conditions to be “toward near neutral in the winter”.

He said three provinces – North West, Free State and KZN – could expect “a recurrence of the relatively good rain showers” and there would still be several “isolated heavy rain and thundershowers”.

Ratau said the warnings over “lower than normal rainfall over the next three months would mean that our recovery rate could still stretch beyond three years”. – ANA

PICTURE: JASON BOUD DRY SEASON: The Department of Water and Sanitation says the recent rainfalls will not have a significant effect on dam levels. Western Cape dams, such as the Berg River dam outside Franschhoek, are 36.6% full.