The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has opened two more sluice gates at the Vaal dam, with four gates now open.
This is as part of the continuous monitoring of the high inflows impacting on the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) and thus the Vaal dam as one of the 14 dams in the system.
The opening of the sluice gates follows consistent heavy rains over the last couple of weeks in the catchments supporting the IVRS and the Orange river.
According to DWS media liaison officer Sputnik Ratau, the dam, which supplies most of Gauteng, was at 111.4% on the morning of January 4.
He notes that opening the sluice gates will protect the infrastructure from collapsing, as the Sterkfontein, Grootdraai and Bloemhof dams have also reached full capacity.
“It continues to be critically important for all the farmers and other communities downstream of the dam to move their equipment away from the further expected heavy flows.
The collective upsurge in the 14 dams that form part of the IVRS has had a positive impact on the levels of the system, which was now at 97.1%.