Cape Town - Winter is here and is bringing rainfall that is good news for the Western Cape’s dams, according to Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell.
“The province is traditionally a winter rainfall zone and we tend to get the bulk of our rainfall in the winter months. We expect this to be the case this year too.
“We have already seen a rather wet end to autumn with a severe storm that affected the Overberg in particular a few weeks ago, which indicates that we may be in for a wetter than normal winter.”
Bredell said municipalities across the province continue to prepare for the winter months, fixing broken pipes and clearing blocked drains where reported and that across the province, emergency services and disaster entities remain on standby.
Meanwhile, the latest average dam level for dams across the Western Cape is 54% compared with 36.7% in 2020.
At the same time the latest average level for dams providing water to the City is 75.3%, which is 20.5% more than at the same time last year.
According to Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau, some Western Cape dams storage continues to tick up due to rainfalls in recent days.
Quoting the provincial hydrological report Ratau said: “The Bulshoek, Elandskloof and Stettynskloof dams increased by more than 5%.
“The Western Cape water supply system, which comprises the six largest dams in the Western Cape has increased slightly by 1% as compared with last week.
“However, the eastern parts of the Western Cape remain a concern. It will take significant rains to recharge some dams in the Little and Central Karoo.”
He said the fact that dam levels were increasing should challenge the water users to renew their efforts in saving water.