The water levels of the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) remain above 90%, despite a slight decline this week following weeks of steadily increasing water levels owing to rainfall in the catchment areas.
The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly state of the reservoirs report showed that the system’s water levels dropped from 92.1% last week to 91.9% this week.
During the same week last year, the IVRS, which comprises 14 dams, was at 65.9%.
The water levels of the Vaal dam, which is a critical dam within the system, supplying water to Gauteng and Eskom and Sasol, decreased from 105.2% last week to 104.9% this week and remain much stronger than the water levels of 54.8% recorded in the comparative week last year.
The Grootdraai dam’s water levels registered at 100.2%, a slight decrease from the recorded 101.5% last week. However, it remains higher than the same week last year, when it was 96.7% full.
The water levels of the Sterkfontein and Bloemhof dams increased week-on-week.
Sterkfontein dam levels climbed from 97.6% last week to 97.7% this week, closely maintaining the levels of 92.9% reported during the same period last year.
At the Bloemhof dam, the water levels increased from 103.3% last week and 83.6% last year to 103.7% this week, while the Katse dam declined to 78.2% this week from 78.5% last week. This is a stark contrast with the levels of 33.8% recorded during the same week last year.
However, the water levels of the Mohale dam, while increasing, still remain low. The dam recorded levels of 40.4% this week, compared with last week’s 41% and 12.7% in the comparative period last year.