The Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) Weekly State of Reservoirs report shows that the Northern Cape’s average water storage is 89.2%, a decline from last week’s 92.7%.
The Department appeals to municipalities, business, civil society organisations and residents in Northern Cape to join hands and work together in ensuring that water conservation programmes bear fruition. Furthermore, the Department says the success of water conservation programmes can be a success if all hands are in the deck to fix burst and leaking pipes, regularly monitoring of boreholes to ensure adherence to recommended yields to avoid over abstracting.
Behavioural change in water consumption will contribute immensely towards improving the water situation in the province. The Vanderkloof Dam which is bordering between the Free State and Northern Cape is at 99.2%, while the Orange River system is 94.4%, down from 94.8% last week.
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The Douglas Storage Weir in the Vaal River is 109.3%, the full supply capacity of the Weir is 16.245 million cubic metres. The Boegoeberg Dam in the Orange River is at 72.5%, the Spitskop Dam in the Harts River is at 101.8% and the Vaalharts Weir in the Vaal River has declined from 86.6 to 76.8%. The Karee Dam that provides water to Calvinia is this week at 12.2%.
The Department would like to advise that Northern Cape has balancing dams, not storage dams. The difference being that storage dams’ primary purpose is for long term water storage while balancing dams are designed to act as multipurpose facilities by diverting water into canals, pipelines or act as pumping stations. As a result, water levels in the Northern Cape fluctuate and vary from week to week.
