Water dept steps in to ease Free State shortages

11th November 2019

By: Tasneem Bulbulia

Senior Contributing Editor Online

     

Font size: - +

To augment dwindling water levels in the Free State, the Department of Water and Sanitation has released water from the Saulsport dam to benefit areas such as Frankfort, Tweeling and Reitz.

The department on Monday said the Saulsport dam was in a better state this week, at 80%, compared with most other dams in the province.

It added that the release of water from the dam would be a big relief to the three areas, as they were becoming water stressed.

The scheduled maintenance shutdown of the Lesotho Highland Water Project, which is expected to be completed later this month, has affected water supply in Frankfort, which gets its water from Liebensvlei river and the Lower Wilge river.

In terms of the overall water levels in the province, the weekly dam levels report issued by the department showed that water storage had declined to 70.8% this week, from last week’s 72.1%.

This is also a significant decline from the levels of 83.5% recorded over the same period last year.

The hot temperatures in most parts of the country have had repercussions on water resources with demand for water use increasing and dams evaporating.

The department has again appealed to all water users to reduce consumption and save water.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION