Western Cape govt hopes to see dams 75% full by October
The Western Cape government has cautioned residents to use water sparingly, despite the increase of dam levels across the province following recent rains.
Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said dams had risen to 21.2%.
He said the levels had increased by about two percentage points over the past week, and around four percentage points over the past two weeks.
On May 29, the average levels were reported as being 17.6% across the Western Cape.
"There has been a slight increase in the average dam levels, but we are still a long way off from breaking this ongoing drought," Bredell said.
"We hope to be around 75% on average by October, [ahead of] the coming summer period."
In June 2016, Western Cape dams were roughly 30% full.
Dams in the Berg River catchment were 30.44% full on Tuesday. The Breede River catchment stood at 19.01%, the Gouritz River catchment at 18.85%, the Olifants/Doorn River catchment at 15.16%, and Cape Town dams were at 22.73%.
In a statement on Monday, City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services, and energy Xanthea Limberg said it could take several seasons of normal rainfall for dam levels to recover.
"Apart from safeguarding our current sustainability, we must think about building additional reserve capacity by continuing with the most hard-hitting water-saving efforts that we can muster," she said.
"All consumers must continue to use less than 100 litres per person per day in total, whether at work, home, school or elsewhere."
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