The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has reduced the outflow of water from the Vaal Dam from 61.2 cubic metres per second (mᵌ/s) to 40 mᵌ/s as inflows slightly decrease.

The dam is currently at 101.51% and in line with the DWS’ flood management plan, the Department is releasing water using 5 valves at the dam to ensure that there is balance between the inflows and outflows at the dam.

The outflow release of water from the dam is one of the measures to ensure that necessary precautions are in place in line with dam safety standards and hydrological monitoring systems to safeguard and maintain the integrity of the water resource infrastructure as well as reduce flood conditions while keeping the dam at full capacity.

These releases, while they are meant to ensure that the dam’s capacity stays within the range of 100-103% at the current inflow levels, the water flow is insignificant in that they will not make the river to overtop the banks.

The Vaal Dam has 8 valves in total that are used for river releases. On normal day to day releases, using 2 valves range from 16.8 mᵌ/s to 17.6 mᵌ/s in order to keep the natural flow in the river.

The Bloemhof Dam, located downstream of the Vaal River catchment is currently sitting at 99.44%. The controlled outflow releases of 320 mᵌ/s through outlet pipes remain unchanged. These releases are meant to facilitate the proper management of water levels and to keep the dam at or below its full supply capacity of 100%.

There are currently no sluice gates open at both dams

DWS continues to monitor the hydrological monitoring and forecasting systems in the Vaal River System and if inflows increase, and should the need arise, more releases may be effected on both dams to safeguard to prevent dam failures and major disasters.

The heavy rains in most parts of the country have necessitated the Department to implement dam releases according to its safety protocols in some major dams to prevent dam failures and major disasters in the country.

As part of the flood management plan, dam safety protocols are activated when dams breach the full capacity mark and overflow to prevent the infrastructure from failing which may lead to a dam bursting and causing a disaster of unimaginable magnitude and also leave the areas it supplies without sources of water.

The DWS follows operating rules and procedures when releasing water from dams necessitated by floods as a result of heavy rains and will gradually implement the releases in line with the established flood management protocols in coordination with the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), Provincial Disaster Management Centres (PDMCs), and affected local municipalities.

Through various platforms, the department engage, share hydrology reports and updates on regular basis on the water levels in both dams, with recommendations in order to send early warning systems and activate evacuation plans in cases of flooding.

Stakeholders include the Disaster Management operations in the affected municipalities, local police services (police water wing), farmers and locals upstream and downstream along the Vaal River System.

Since rainfall and floods are natural phenomena and control of the events may be limited, the Department continues to advice against putting essential services and human settlements within parts of the floodplains where there is likelihood of frequent flooding, that is within a 1 in 100-year floodline.