Despite recent rains in the Garden Route, Knysna Municipality is still asking all residents to make an effort to use water wisely, implement conservation measures and adhere to municipal water restrictions.

“Our consumption is still high and it is vital that our consumption is curbed so that our water reserves can be replenished,” says Knysna Executive Mayor Georlene Wolmarans.

Although we have seen some positive results due to our Water Awareness Campaign, as a town Knysna has not reached our consumption target of 8 megalitres per day, which includes the 2 megalitre allocation for business use. This equates to 85 litres per person per day,”

“We have seen better results in Sedgefield, with consumption at 2 megalitres per day, while the target is 1.9 megalitres. A big thumbs-up to residents of Sedgefield for coming together and showing us all what can be done.”

Town’s reserve slowly emptying

While the rivers are full and flowing, Knysna has a total water pumping capacity of 9.9 megalitres per day augmented by other sources to ±10.6 megalitres. The current consumption stands at 12.3 megalitres.

This means the off-channel (not situated on an actual river) Akkerkloof dam, the town’s main reserve, is slowly emptying.

The geography of the region limits the catchment area that feeds Knysna’s storage capacity.

“We need to bring the level of consumption down to below our pumping capacity,” says Mayor Wolmarans, “in doing so the Akkerkloof dam (currently at 34% capacity) and the Glebe dam can be refilled. When these dams are full, it gives the town a buffer of three months, instead of a few weeks as is the situation at present.

“This is the most viable approach over the short term while council investigates and implements longer-term solutions which would include the construction of another dam, a pipeline and groundwater extraction.”