The few days of “good rainfall” experienced by the Western Cape is not enough to fix a system that has received three years of below average rainfall.
The average dam levels in the region continue to decline, falling to 17.6% by April 2, from 24.3% a year ago and 18.22% last week.
A lot of hard rain in the catchment areas is needed for dam levels to recover to adequate levels, Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Minister Anton Bredell said on Tuesday.
“One or two days [of rain] here and there will not make much difference. In the Western Cape our catchment areas are in our mountain ranges. So it needs to rain hard and a lot in the mountainous areas for our dams to see some recovery,” he said.
In addition, a very cold winter with much snow would be beneficial to the system, particularly in Spring, where melting snow on the high mountains contribute to boosting rivers and dams in the province.
“We have not seen really cold winters with lots of good snow over the past few years,” he added, warning consumers to continue using water sparingly.