It could take South Africa three years to recover from the drought, but even then, South Africa is not in the clear. This is according to Water and Sanitation Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane.

Mokonyane briefed MECs who are responsible for cooperative governance across all nine provinces on Tuesday afternoon. She updated them on the department’s water and sanitation delivery performance plans for 2017.

The minister reiterated that although recent rains have been good, it was not enough to save the country from the drought. She urged all government sectors to help preserve water.

Mokonyane said South Africans must implement long-term strategies in order to avoid water restrictions and accept that they are living in a drought-stricken country.

Dam levels

She said the department felt that South Africa’s dam levels were still very concerning as the average capacity was around 63% as of last week.

This time last year, average dam levels were 50,7%. Over the past week, most dam levels increased. The Eastern Cape is up by 0.4% to 58.6%, Free State by 2.7% to 54%, KwaZulu-Natal by 1.1% to 43.6%, Limpopo by 3.2% to 57.5%, Mpumalanga by 2.3% to 64.9%, Northern Cape by 19.5% to 94.3%, North West by 1.6% to 67.5% and the Western Cape went down by 1.9% to 41.4%.

Gauteng’s dam levels went up by 0,3% to 87,1% this past week thanks to a 3,2% increase in the Vaal River system.

Gauteng has kept its water restrictions in place, maintaining that domestic use should be reduced by 15% and agricultural use by 20%.

Increased storage capacity

Mokonyane said the country needed to create more storage capacity to help minimise water loss. She said her department plans to spend 7% of its budget on infrastructure maintenance to aid this.

Government has also said it is considering the introduction of desalination plants in KwaZulu-Natal.

Despite the rains that are still expected later this week, drought conditions are still very prevalent and remain a threat to South Africa’s water security.