The level of South Africa’s dams has marginally declined over the past few weeks, with the national storage capacity of the country’s reservoirs pegged at 92.3 percent.
Latest figures from the Department of Water and Sanitation showed on Thursday that dam levels dropped 0.1 percentage points during the week to August 17 compared to the previous week when storage capacity stood at 92.4 percent.
“The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly status of dams report demonstrates that the country’s water levels are on a continual decrease due to the lack of rains in the last few weeks,” the department said.
The country’s biggest water supply system, Integrated Vaal River System – which has 14 dams across four provinces – dipped marginally from 99.2 percent last week to 98.9 percent this week.
On the positive note, 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 15 percent last week to 15.1 percent this week.
“However, the system remains low and dams are still struggling to recover from the persisting drought in the area.”
Seven of South Africa’s nine provinces have experienced downward movements in water levels. These are Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape provinces.
Only the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces witnessed increases in water levels from 63.9-64.6 percent and 69.5-70.2 percent, respectively.
“The Department of Water and Sanitation continues to urge the public to save and use water sparingly as we remain a water scarce country.”
JN/APA