The ongoing drought taking a toll on the Southern African region is impacting significantly on the Western Cape, which has declared five municipalities local disaster areas, according to Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Minister Anton Bredell, who noted in a statement released Monday that the average dam level had dropped to 55% across the province.

He added that, of the five municipalities declared local disaster areas, namely the Central Karoo district, the West Coast district, Witzenberg, Prince Albert and Oudtshoorn, the most affected regions were the West Coast and the Central Karoo districts.
 
Bredell explained that, in the Central Karoo district, all towns depended either solely or partially on borehole water.

“The yields are good and have stabilised from dropping after the rains received during the summer. Water restrictions have been put in place and awareness programmes are under way to aid in saving water,” he said, adding that while all the farms in the region received rain during the winter, this was not enough to fill dams or to sustain sufficient growth in the plants,” Bredell noted.
 
Meanwhile, in the West Coast district matters remain serious and all municipalities have instituted 20% water restrictions.
 
All four municipalities in the Overberg district report that there is no immediate crisis in their areas, however, certain towns in Theewaterskloof municipality would be subject to the same water restrictions as the City of Cape Town.

Bredell said that the overall situation in the Eden district could be classified as low risk as most municipalities had water availability for six months or more.

He further noted that the Cape Winelands municipalities adhered to the same water restrictions as the City of Cape Town and had been classified as medium risk, while the City of Cape Town’s dam levels were significantly lower compared with last year.

As a result, the city is implementing Level 3 water restrictions and tariffs associated with these water restrictions will come into effect from December 1.
 
“The department has a number of mitigation measures in place and we continuously monitor the situation. We want to call on the public to continue to use water responsibly,” concluded Bredell.