The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has announced its intention to impose water restrictions in the Western Cape Province as dam levels across the country continue to decline week on week.

The major dams supplying the Western Cape Water Supply System have been severely drawn down over the past year due to high water demand and lower-than normal rainfall experienced over the period.

Currently Gauteng is the only province in the country that has not been declared a state of disaster due to the ongoing drought.

 

Poor infrastructure exacerbates the problem

Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Gogta), Des van Rooyen, told the Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) on Drought that the drought situation has been exacerbated by the poor state of water-related infrastructure, water losses and the lack of implementation of stringent water conservation measures in affected areas.

“The drought situation is still gloomy. Disasters do not happen in a vacuum, but in communities where people stay. Among the measures that should be considered in addressing the drought conditions are disaster management plans and other seasonal related contingency plans.

“Our people do not have much information. There should be increased communication of drought-related information to all communities. We should ensure implementation of Disaster Risk Management, with an emphasis on Disaster Risk reduction,” said Van Rooyen.

 

Dam levels dropping

The DWS has been conducting weekly assessments of dam levels. The assessment conducted on 6 June 2016 has reflected a 0.4 decrease on dam levels which are currently sitting on an average of 53.4% compared with 53.8% of the previous week.

Last year at the same time the dam levels were reported to be at 76.2%. There is therefore a 0.4% to 0.5% fall off week on week.

A further fall off of about 10% before the onset of the summer rains can be expected.