The water levels across Limpopo’s reservoirs recorded a slight decrease to 80.7% this week, compared with last week’s 81.3%, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) said.
While the water levels are higher than the 62.3% reported during the same period last year, the DWS said in its weekly state of reservoirs report that the lack of rain and scorching temperatures are affecting the water levels.
“The provincial water storage levels continually drops week-on-week and this calls for all water users in the province to be efficient and conservative in how they utilise water,” it said in a statement.
The DWS noted that the Polokwane Water Supply System, with dams supplying water to Polokwane and surrounding areas, is currently at 84.2%, a decline from last week’s 85.1%.
Ebenezer dam in Groot Letaba, which supplies most communities around Polokwane, has decreased from last week’s 97.8% to 96.6% this week; however, this is a significant improvement from last year this time when the dam was at 12.6%.
In the Vhembe district, the Nandoni dam, which is supplied by the Levhuvhu river, is at its full capacity at 100.4%, a marginal decrease on the 100.8% last week.
The dam recorded 99.6% last year at this time.
While the water levels of the Vondo dam declined to 95.3% this week, compared with last week’s 95.7%, it was higher than the 90.8% reported in the corresponding period last year.
Further, the De Hoop dam in Steelpoort, which supplies the community of Sekhukhune and the local mining industries, has declined from 95.6% last week to 95.3% this week. This is an improvement from last year’s 92.4%.
The water levels of the Flag Boshielo dam, which is normally at full capacity, are declining continuously, sitting at 79.5% this week from 80.3% last week and 92.2% in the corresponding period last year.
Mokolo dam, in the Mokolo river, while improving from 45.1% at this time last year, declined to 97.9% this week from last week’s 98.5%, while the Tzaneen dam, which supplies water to farmers for irrigation in the area, has also dropped significantly this week from 88.9% last week to the current 87.6%. This dam was at a critical low of 15.8% at this time last year.
Lastly, the Middle Letaba dam is critically low at 7.4% this week, down from the equally low 7.6% last week, while the levels of the Doorndraai dam in Sterk river declined to 38.1% this week compared with last week’s 39.1%. This is an improvement on the 9.5% it recorded last year at this time.