National water levels decline marginally as rainfall subsides

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly status of dams point out that the country’s water levels have recorded a moderate decrease when compared to the same period last week. This week, the overall storage capacity of the country’s water level sits at 97.5%, a relatively small reduction from last week’s 99.9%, and a considerable improvement from last year’s 92.3%.

All the country’s 14 Water Supply Systems have recorded some sort of downward movements in water levels, this drop albeit not significantly is attributed the cease of the torrential rainfall experienced in most parts of the country recently.

The Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) which supplies a number of provinces dropped from 105.8% to 103.4%, Orange System decreased from 111.0% last week to 108,9%, Algoa with dams in water stressed Nelson Mandela Bay reduce faintly from 12.4% to 12.1% and Cape Town Water Supply System also shrunk from 56.4% to 56.0%.

Other Systems are Crocodile East at 101.3%, Luvuvhu slightly above 100% at 102.5%, Umhlathuze sits at 100.5%, Amathole 100.6%, Bloemfontein 100.0%, Butterworth moved slightly down from 100.5% to 100.3%, Crocodile West declined from 96.6% to 95.9%, Umgeni decreased from 103.9% to 102.3% and Polokwane reduced from 105.3% to 103.4%.

The overall provincial water storage indicates that 07 provinces have recorded downwards movements in water levels namely, KwaZulu-Natal slightly dropped from 97.6% to 91.9%, Free State declined from 109.6% to 107.1%, Gauteng decreased from 102.1% to 101.2%, Limpopo reduced somewhat from 91.6% to 90.6%, Mpumalanga dropped from 101.4% to 100.1%, Eastern Cape diminish from 80.5% to 77.9% and Western Cape declined from 49.7% to 49.2%.

Only 02 provinces are in the improvement segment they are; Northern Cape which increased substantially from 108.4% to 115.0% and North West moving slightly up from 87.2% to 88.0%.

Vaal Dam which is part of the IVRS has been full to the brim recently, this week it has decreased from last week’s went up to % is now below 108%, this is as a result of the pause in rainfall and the department’s flood control release and opening of sluice gates. To this end 05 flood gates remain open as water levels continue to decline.

Bloemhof which also part of IVRS has slightly decreased from 107.8% to 100.0%, outflow from the dam will be reduced stepwise from 1800m3 starting at 09H00 to eventually 1000m3/s at 15H00 today.

Gariep Dam which is part of Orange River Water Supply System has recorded a decrease from 112.3% to 106%, Vanderkloof Dam moved up by the slightest of from 109.0 to % to below 107%.

The Department continues to closely monitor the water flow in the affected rivers and dams and urge communities at the Lower Orange and Lower Vaal Rivers to remain vigilant and continue to exercise caution as the river levels remain high despite the slight drop.

Source: Government of South Africa