Water diverted to Voëlvlei, Berg River

EXTREMELY low water levels in both the Voëlvlei and Misverstand dams have prompted the national Department of Water and Sanitation to act quickly.

Voëlvlei’s water level is 13.75%, while Misverstand’s is 13.26%.

The department and municipalities in the district estimate the water in Misverstand could run out on April 24.

“We must focus our attention on the dire situation developing in the West Coast District municipalities, which includes areas such as the Berg River, Saldanha Bay and Swartland,” Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti said. The department will release to the Misverstand Dam up to 5 million cubic metres of water, which will be extracted from the Voëlvlei and Berg River dams.

“Water will also be supplemented into the Berg River Dam through the emergency pumping scheme from the Theewaterskloof Dam and, should there be any significant rainfall during the operation, the release will be revised,” Nkwinti said. Misverstand supplies municipalities on the West Coast.

Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said: “It will be much better to extract water from the Voëlvlei Dam because there is a heavy reliance from residents and businesses on the Misverstand Dam.”

The release of the water is expected to take place between today and Friday.

Meanwhile, the city council has announced that the collective water consumption over the past week was 542 million litres a day, an increase from an average of 516 million litres last week.

Dam levels have declined a further 0.5% to 20.9%.

“Thus far, April has been relatively warm, mimicking the climate patterns of March. High temperatures were experienced last week, as well as high winds in the catchment areas,” deputy mayor Ian Neilson said.

He stressed there was a need to reduce, drastically, the total consumption to 450 million litres per day to keep within the allocation the department provided to the city council.

“This requires individuals to use no more than 50 litres per person per day.

We must achieve this target to stretch the available water supplies as far as possible into the winter months and through the remainder of the year,” Neilson said.

‘WE MUST FOCUS OUR ATTENTION ON THE DIRE (WEST COAST DISTRICT) SITUATION’

PICTURE: GARY VAN WYK SAVING GRACE: The Berg River Dam, Moorreesburg, one of the dams in the West Coast District from which water will be extracted and released into the Misverstand Dam, which is currently 13.26% full.