Although the country\u2019s dam levels have begun dropping slightly as the country approaches the dry winter season in inland provinces, they are comparatively 15% higher than in the same period last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cFigures contained in a weekly report by the Department of Water and Sanitation suggest that the dam levels have gone up from 69.1% to 85% this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the department has cautioned against the rampant use of water as the country is not out of the woods yet from the previous drought. Because of a regional low rainfall pattern, South Africa remained a water-scarce country and water must be treated as a scarce resource,\u201d the department said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Free State continues to boast the highest dam levels in the country at 98.6%, followed by Gauteng at 100%.<\/p>\n
The Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) consisting 14 dams in different provinces as well as inflows from Lesotho has benefitted immensely from the recent heavy rains.<\/p>\n
One of those dams is the Vaal Dam whose latest reading stands at 103% this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it must be borne in mind that Gauteng and Northern Cape have the smaller and fewer dams compared to the Free State which has [the] three biggest dams in the country. Northern Cape dam levels were recorded at 90.9%, making it the third highest reading after Free State and Gauteng,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n
At 87.1% Limpopo\u2019s dam levels have increased by 17% from 70% in the corresponding period last year.<\/p>\n
The Olifants Integrated River System has played a major role in increasing the province\u2019s water levels. The system\u2019s latest figures show that it has improved its water reservoir by 11% from 69.8% to 79.8% this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMpumalanga occupies the middle of the table with its dam levels recording 87.8%, a 12.5% improvement compared to last year\u2019s 75.3%. Inkomati-Usuthu River System on the Lowveld boosted the province\u2019s water levels by filling up the dams to 79.8%,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the North West province\u2019s dams also increased by 12.5% from 69.5% to 81.4% this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cPre-winter rains in the Western Cape increased dam levels to 53.3% compared to 39.9% reading of the same period last year. The figure represents a 15% increase of water levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Western Cape Water System which supplies Cape Town and its surroundings dropped from 69.7% to 68.6% week on week, whilst it is still higher than the 55.3% of a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Breede-Gouritz Water Management Area stands at 48.1% this week, slightly down compared to 48.8% a week ago. However, winter rains that are expected at the end of next month are expected once again to fill up the dams.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drought-prone Eastern Cape dam levels remain unchanged from last week\u2019s recordings of 54.3%, indicating continued difficulty with rainfall.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the past four years, large parts of the province have experienced severe drought conditions that reached a crisis level in 2020. This led to the provincial government declaring the province a disaster area. The situation is particularly dire in Nelson Mandela Bay where the dams have dropped below 10%,\u201d the department said. \u2013SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although the country\u2019s dam levels have begun dropping slightly as the country approaches the dry winter season in inland provinces, they are comparatively 15% higher than in the same period last year. \u201cFigures contained in a weekly report by the Department of Water and Sanitation suggest that the dam levels have gone up from 69.1% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-187459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}