Persistent rain and a rush of water brought by Tropical Cyclone Eloise in recent weeks have pushed key dam levels higher across South Africa.
The critical dams in the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) were now 82% full, the Department of Water and Sanitation said on Wednesday. At the same time last year, dam levels were below 65%.
Gauteng, the Free State, North West and Mpumalanga rely on the IVRS for their water. The system also supplies water to key industries, and Sasol and Eskom depend on the dam.
The Vaal dam levels continue to climb - from 75% last week to almost 80% currently.
“Judged against last year’s levels at the same time when the dam was sitting at 57%, this week’s levels are substantially higher,” the department said.
The Grootdraai dam near Standerton in Mpumalanga is now more than 108% full, while the Bloemhof Dam on the border between North West and Free State is at 102%, compared to last year’s 78% at the same time. The Sterkfontein dam in the Free State is near 97%.
The two extremely distressed Lesotho dams are also gaining momentum. From only 13% last year, Lesotho’s Mohale dam is now above 38%. The department says the Katse Dam in Lesotho has turned a corner after “floating in a shrunken state for a number of months”. From 28% this week last year, it’s now at almost 65%.
In the Western Cape, the key Theewaterskloof dam is 86% full - after sinking to a terrifying 10% at the height of Cape Town’s water crisis in 2017. Berg River dam (83%), Voelvlei (78%), Wemmershoek (84%) Steenbras Lower (78%) and Steenbras Upper (60%) are also maintaining decent levels – months ahead of the winter rain season in the Western Cape.
Last month, government reported that Free State dams were close to 90%, and in the Northern Cape dam are close to full, or overflowing, after heavy rains. The Gariep Dam is at almost 120%. Last year, the average dam level in the Northern Cape was below 78%.
The situation remained “stable” in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, the department said last month. “KwaZulu-Natal is in a similar situation although the coastal belt has benefitted immensely from recent rains.”
After years of drought, Eastern Cape dams are “filling up rapidly”, with average dam levels in the province almost reaching 53% - from 46% last year, government says.
But key dams in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality were only on average 20% full at the end of January, and Landbou.com reports that the western part of the Eastern Cape – including Aberdeen and Willowmore – is still suffering from crippling droughts, with the Kouga dam at 8% last week, compared to 22% last year.
Despite the increasing dam levels in the rest of the country, South Africa’s ageing water infrastructure continues to be of great concern with over a third of the country's water supply being lost due to leaks and other problems, with experts warning that like load shedding, residents should expect increasing water outages.
As part of government’s new raft of infrastructure projects, R106 billion has been committed to water projects in all nine provinces, and 25,000 jobs are expected to be created.
“The department urges water users where possible to install rainwater tanks to collect water rain from the gutters of roofs and to store in rain tanks or similar storage devices for garden irrigation,” the department said this week. “This water could be directed to garden areas so that this is not wasted and washed into the storm-water system.”
