South Africa’s water situation is starting to see improvement as rains boosted overall dam levels from 60.2% last week to 61.2% this week.
A weekly report by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) shows that dam levels in the drought-stricken Eastern Cape have improved from 46.4% last week to 47.3% early this week.
In Limpopo, six dams, namely Rust de Winter, Tonteldoos, Flag Boshielo, Klaserie, Hans Merensky and Vergelegen, are filled to capacity, with three of these exceeding 100%.
Hans Merensky rose dramatically from 87.8% last week to 103.5% this week.
Gauteng maintained a stable water level at 101%, with Bronkhorstspruit dam levels stabilising at 101% and the Vaal dam increasing to 76.3%.
Bon Accord dam recorded water levels of 107.8% while Rietvlei dam is almost full at 99.7%.
Further, Roodeplaat dam and Klipdrift dam recorded full capacity at 100.3% and 100.4% respectively.
Mpumalanga’s dam levels remained stable this week at 73.7%, while KwaZulu-Natal recorded an improvement from 54.9% last week to 56.5% this week.
Overall dam levels in the Free State increased from 67.2% to 68.6% in the past week, while dam levels in North West remained stable at 65.8%.
However, the absence of rain in major parts of Northern Cape has caused a drop in dam levels from 77.5% to 72.7% week-on-week.
In addition, the Western Cape’s dam levels are on a downward slide following the province’s dry summer period, with levels at 53.8%, a drop from 54.1% last week.