National water volumes continue to shrink as we grow into Spring season
The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly state of water reservoirs demonstrate a minor decline. This week, the overall national storage capacity of the country’s reservoirs is at 91.2%, a tiny reduction from last week’s 91.8%, and a significant improvement from last year’s 80.6%.
The country’s largest Water Supply System, the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS), consisting of 14 dams across four provinces dipped marginally from 97.4% last week to 96.7% this week. Some of the Water Supply Systems that have declined are: Bloemfontein from 97.1% last week to 96.9% this week, Amathole from 82.5% last week to 81.9%, Butterworth from 99.1% to 98.5%, Both Crocodile East and West experienced a reduction by the tiniest margins from 98.9% to 97.7% and 96.8% to 96.1% respectively.
Continuing with the downward movement in as far as Water Supply Systems are concerned were: Luvuvhu from 100.5% to 100.4%, UMhlathuze from 99.1% to 98.7%, Polokwane from 100.1% to 99.6%, Orange from 97.6% to 96.9% and Umgeni dropped from 97.0% to 96.7%.
On the positive note, the following water supply systems experienced some increments; Algoa Water Supply System with dams supplying water to Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is among the systems that have recorded slight improvement, increasing slightly from 16.3% last week to 17.6% this week. However, the system remains low, and dams are still struggling to recover from the persisting drought in the area. Cape Town also moved up marginally from 83.5% to 84.4%, and Klipplaat is steady and unchanged week on week at 100.0%.
Seven out of nine provinces have experienced reductions in water levels namely, Eastern Cape from 70.5% to 70.2%, Free State from 98.4% to 97.7%, KwaZulu-Natal from 87.9% to 87.4%, Limpopo from 86.9% to 86.5%, Mpumalanga from 93.7% to 93.2%, North West from 78.9% to 78.1% and Northern Cape from 107.2% to 105.6%.
On the improvement segment is Western Cape which increased from 71.4% to 72.5%, while Gauteng remains at the same level with that of last week at 97.2%.
The Gariep, which is South Africa’s largest dam dropped slightly from 96.5% last week and is sitting at 95.5% this week. While Sterkfontein Dam, a reserve dam within IVRS, is at 99.8%, showing a minor decrease from last week’s water level of 100.1%. Vaal Dam has declined from 98.5% to 97.8%.
The Department of Water and Sanitation continues to urge water users to be circumspect in the way they utilise water since we have just entered a new season of Spring which is usually characterized by high temperatures in various parts of the country and may result in an increase of water demand.
Source: Government of South Africa