City dams recovering

THE recent heavy rains have pushed dams supplying Cape Town to an average of 59.8% full.

Water and sanitation mayco member Xanthea Limberg said: “Although the metro dam levels are slowly increasing, we are still in a period of recovery. This precious resource has to see us through the next summer until the following winter, and hopefully some better rainfall.

“Cape Town’s collective water consumption decreased by 15 million litres per day for the past week, to 555 million litres per day. This an encouraging response to the City urging continued restraint, despite recent rains. For this we are appreciative.

“Further rains this past week have seen dam levels recover to 59.8% of storage capacity; however, we are not yet in a position where we can safely relax,” said Limberg.

Water restrictions remain in place to aid dam recovery.

Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said: “We’re very happy to see the levels starting to increase dramatically. In the past week the Berg River Dam has seen an increase of more than 10% and the Clanwilliam Dam level has increased by more than 15%. The Theewaterskloof Dam – the biggest in the Western Cape – increased by 5.5% and is now more than 50% full. Last year at this stage it was still at 38%. Overall we expect dam levels will continue to increase in the coming weeks.”

Bredell urged residents to continue to use water sparingly.

“We don’t know how much more rain we will get and we don’t know to what extent our dam levels will improve,” he said.

Meanwhile the Department of Water and Sanitation has called upon all sectors to join the Clear Rivers Campaign taking place this month. The objective of the campaign is to engage communities and create ongoing awareness and education on protecting the country’s water resources.

The campaign will involve river clean-ups across the Western Cape.

Anyone who wishes to take part in the initiative can join as an individual or through different organisations.

A three-hour stakeholders’ meeting will take place at 52 Voortrekker Road, Bellville, tomorrow.

For RSVP contact Pheto Ntaba on 0828092031. | Lisakanya Ntshwanti