Dear Stakeholders,
The enclosed weekly bulletin indicates the following:
- The total volume of surface water in storage nationally expressed as a percentage of full supply capacity of 223 dams with available data is for this week at 79.9%, a decrease from last week by -0.5% of the full supply capacity. Comparatively this week’s storage volume remains +14% higher than at the same reporting period last year. Approximately 18% of the 223 dams are at storage levels at or above 100% of their full supply capacities, while 9% remains at storage volumes below 10% for this week.
- Most Provinces including Lesotho and Eswatini have for this week continued to experience a decline in storage volumes at an average of -0.74%. This is with an exception of the Northern Cape (+1%) and KwaZulu-Natal (+0.1%) which experienced an increase from last week. All provinces remains at high storage dam levels for this week compared to last year, except for Gauteng Province (-4.8%). The Western Cape has for the first time experienced a decrease in storage levels since the beginning of the rainy winter season by -0.2% of full supply capacity.
- Only the uMhlathuze water supply system has experienced an increase compared to last week by +0.4% of full supply capacity. In contrast to the storage volumes for the past year, the Bloemfontein (+25%); Crocodile East (+42.9%); the Integrated Vaal River System (+24.1%), and uMhlathuze (+19.2%) remains significantly higher, while the Algoa (-6.6%); Amathole (-9.3%); and Klipplaat (-13.7%) remains in a worse state of storage for this week, compared to the same period last year.
- The Eastern Cape Province has for this week dropped by -0.3% and is currently at 50.2% of fully supply capacity. However, this storage level remains higher than the storage levels at the same period of reporting last year by +0.2%. An observation can be made on the big dams in the Algoa water supply system; that the storage levels for Kouga Dam and Impofu Dam has remained similar to the previous week, at 5.6% and 16.7%, respectively.
- The two large dams in Lesotho (Katse and Mohale Dam), which form part of the Integrated Vaal River System are at a combined water storage volume of 52.5% of the full supply capacity. The Integrated Vaal River System has experienced a decrease from last week by -0.5%, and is currently at 83.2% of full supply capacity. The Vaal Dam and Bloemhof Dams are at 85.8% and 104.3% of their full supply capacities, respectively; while the Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams are at 83.8% and 97.7% of their full supply capacities, respectively.
Khathutshelo Joshua Rasifudi on behalf of Dr Moloko Matlala
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