Flowing dams false hope
No end in sight for drought despite rains
‘ The situation is still dire. We urge people to use water sparingly
HOPES of significant drought relief have been all but dashed despite substantial rainfall in Nelson Mandela Bay and the surrounding regions over the past few days. The welcome rains have been good for water tanks and gardens and will save farmers irrigation costs – but indications are that dam levels will rise only marginally.
Expectations rose yesterday when the rain began afresh, pouring down through much of the morning, with a Herald photographer taking snaps of water flowing over the wall of the Loerie Dam into the Gamtoos River.
But while the metro is increasing extraction from the Loerie, its relatively tiny capacity compared with the still very low main supply dams means water shortages will continue to bite, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki has warned.
The Loerie Dam is fed by the short Loeriespruit and Berg rivers and water is also fed down from the much larger Kouga Dam via a canal system.
Some of the Kouga Dam’s water is portioned off for the towns of Hankey and Patensie, and Gamtoos farmers.
The rest goes into the Loerie to be distributed to the metro after being pumped to the Thornhill Reservoir and then gravity-fed to the Chelsea Reservoir.
But the Kouga Dam is at present feeding nothing down to the Loerie.
Despite this week’s rain, the level of the Kouga was still only 11%, Gamtoos Irrigation Board chief executive Pierre Joubert said yesterday.
“The Kouga Dam is still critically low,” he said.
“We are releasing enough to supply Patensie and Hankey, and that’s it.
“The overflow from Loerie that you are seeing is the water that was collected in their own little catchment.”
The Gamtoos Valley was very wet and farmers had been able to save on irrigation costs, but once the present rains dried up, their curtailed supply from the Kouga Dam – presently reduced to 40% of the normal allocation – would once again kick in, Joubert said.
“It’s tough times in the Gamtoos.”
He said an earlier report that water was flowing into the Kouga Dam at a rate of 5m³ per second was, unfortunately, nothing to get excited about.
“This reading was measured 30km above the dam so it’s not in the dam yet.
“Also, 5m³ per second is almost nothing. It may raise the level of the dam by 1% or 2%, but the level is at 11% – critically low. “Really, we need a flood.” Mniki said the metro’s bulk water team was doing everything possible to capitalise on the rainfall.
“The metro is maximising the use of the Loerie Dam while reducing the demand from its other sources.”
But the situation was still dire. “We urge people to use water sparingly,” he said.
It takes about two days for all the rainfall run-off to enter the Kromme and Kouga rivers and the full impact on the levels of the metro’s four main supply dams would only be known then, Mniki said. The levels yesterday before this new assessment were: Kouga 11.09%, Churchill 14.61%, Impofu 49.75% and Groendal 51.8%, with a total combined capacity of 28.69%.
In the metro, meanwhile, some Kwazakhele families were still battling localised flooding yesterday.
The Yamile family of five adults and six children were trying to drain their flooded home in the Church Village informal settlement.
Twin sisters Andisiwe and Andiswa Yamile, 26, said life was hard and the hard downpours had compounded their miseries.
“We have no food. The house is flooded. We are very stressed,” Andiswa said.
“All of us slept in [one] bed, where we’re packed like a can of sardines. We cannot continue to live like this. “We need an RDP house.” Andisiwe said some of the children had not gone to school because their clothes were soaking wet.
“Those writing examinations had no choice but to put on wet clothes,” she said.
Ward 19 councillor Gamelihle Maqula said he was not aware of the Yamile family’s predicament, but promised to intervene.
“We are relocating families to NU29 in Motherwell, but the process was derailed by the rains,” he said.
According to the South African Weather Service’s Port Elizabeth office, more than 50mm of rain was measured over two days in Nelson Mandela Bay’s main catchment area.
Spokesman Garth Sampson said 65.8mm had been measured at the Port Elizabeth Airport, 76.6mm at the 3rd Avenue dip in Newton Park, 50.2mm in Blue Horizon Bay, 45.8mm at Coega and 50.4mm in Uitenhage.
Elsewhere in the area, 55.5mm was measured at Joubertina, 59.5mm at Kareedouw and 43.8mm at Patensie.
Across the region, 52.8mm fell at Addo, 46.4mm at Bhisho, 23.6mm at Graaff-Reinet, 51.6mm at Grahamstown, 70mm at Plettenberg Bay and 84mm at Port Alfred.
WHILE many have welcomed the much-needed rain in Nelson Mandela Bay over the last couple of days, the Zwartkops Conservancy has had its hands full trying to combat the litter spilling into the Swartkops River.
The non-profit organisation – which has had a group of volunteers clearing the already contaminated river of plastic bottles, bread crates and other harmful substances – is irate about the almost uncontrollable amounts of litter entering through the stormwater canal from Motherwell.
Swartkops resident and Zwartkops Conservancy member Louis Beyers said the problem occurred with every rainfall.
“This is an inherited problem that persists every time it rains and our biggest problem is that the litter contaminates the water.
“We, the public, are sitting with this mess and ever since it started raining we have been trying to stop the waste from spilling into the river because the problem is bigger than just litter,” he said.
“The plastic washes up either to Redhouse River or out to sea and then the fish eat it and can’t digest it, and then people eat the fish and get sick. “Something needs to be done.” Beyers said the conservancy had erected a R15 000 PVC floating barrier which was supposed to keep the litter from drifting further down the river.
However, this proved to be inadequate as the device would drop with high or severely low tides and winds.
“We should not have to put makeshift devices in place as the canal is supposed to catch the pollution, but there is too much water pumping through.
“We need the municipality to redo this entire canal and bring engineers out here to ensure the pollution is properly taken care of.”
Zwartkops Conservancy chairman Frank Collier said: “The welcome rain has brought a most unwelcome avalanche of putrid pollution down the infamous Motherwell Canal.
“A team of Zwartkops Conservancy members have been working all week in trying conditions to stem the anticipated wave of garbage by erecting booms to prevent spillage into the mainstream of the river.
“After decades of neglect by the authorities it is past time to find a radical solution to this massive sewer polluting a river which should be the focus of a beautiful tourist destination,” he said.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said he was still awaiting responses from the relevant departments.