The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) would like to urge water users and communities to continue conserving and using the available water sparingly and wisely.

This is due to there not being much improvement in water levels in the Mpumalanga Province despite some rainfall.

According to the DWS weekly state of reservoirs, the Mpumalanga Province recorded a slight 0.4% average increase on water volumes in the listed dams from last week’s 55.9% to 56.3%.

This is about 10% less than what was recorded at the same time last year.

The Olifants water management area recorded a slight increase from 45.8% to 46.3% and the Inkomati-Usuthu catchment recorded no changes at 61.0%. The listed dams in the Mpumalanga Province recorded mixed reactions over the week. Some dams continued to drop and those that recorded improvements saw minor increases in water volumes.

In the Gert Sibande District, Grootdraai, Nooitgedacht, and Jericho dams recorded some improvements in water levels and the Westoe and Heyshope dams dropped in water volumes. Vygeboom and Morgenstond dams remained unchanged at 89.2% and 36.0% respectively.

Witbank Dam was the only dam that recorded declines in water volumes from last week’s 79.2% to 78.9% in the Nkangala District. Middelburg, Loskop and Rhenosterkop dams recorded some increases in water volumes. The Rhenosterkop Dam which is critically low recorded an improvement from 0.4% to 0.8%.

“The report shows that even though we get some rainfall, it is not enough to fill the dams and make our rivers and streams overflow.”

DWS therefore encourages water users to be more water savvy and conserve more as South Africa is a water scarce country with the situation exacerbated by climate change.