{"id":2431,"date":"2019-05-18T07:51:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T07:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:17","slug":"every-drop-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/05\/18\/every-drop-counts\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Drop Counts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 Article by<\/strong> SAnews.gov.za<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nthe country has enough water to sustain the fast approaching dry winter season,\nSouth Africans have been urged to use water sparingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current\nthe country is sitting with 23 809.2 cubic meters of water in storage,\naccording to a weekly report of the Department of Water and Sanitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the\npast two weeks, the country has maintained stable dam levels at 73.7%, a 6.2%\ndrop compared to the same period last year, the report indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South\nAfrica has entered a hydrological cycle that ushered in the cold and dry winter\nin the hinterland, while the Western Cape has started its expected wet winter\nseason that the department hopes will bring persistent rains. For the moment,\nhowever, that province has its average dam levels at 33.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\n96.8%, Gauteng has the highest dam levels in the country, although it has\ndropped by 6% compared to the same period last year when dams had reached their\nfull capacity of 100.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free\nState and Northern Cape dam levels were recorded at 88.4% and 81.6%\nrespectively, while Mpumalanga retained a stable 74.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department\nspokesperson Sputnik Ratau said although vast parts of the Eastern Cape received\nheavy rains in the past two weeks, the regions of Gamtoos Valley and Makhanda\nremained a source of concern as they are almost dry of potable water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn\nMakhanda, residents rely on tankered water for basic use as the local river is\nleft with the lowest levels. The average levels in the province have dropped\nfractionally to 62.4% this week,\u201d Ratau explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten days\nago, the holiday town of Port St John\u2019s was visited by heavy floods that\ndestroyed infrastructure and displaced hundreds of local residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nqweba\nDam, which is supplied by the Sundays River in Nelson Mandela Bay, is virtually\nempty at 1.5%, Ratau said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KwaZulu-Natal,\nwhich was also hit by heavy storms that resulted in flash floods on the\noutskirts of Durban, retained a mere 65.2% of provincial dam levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratau\nsaid hydrologists attributed this to vast amounts of rain water flowing to the\nsea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nprovince\u2019s Premier, Willies Mchunu, estimated the structural damage from the\nfloods at R660 million, with 71 residents having died as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreport stated that Northern Cape recorded a dam level increase of 5%, although\nthere is a 10% drop compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boegoeberg\nDam, supplied by the Orange River, recorded a whopping 116.4% level, an\nincrease of 8% from last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Free\nState has become an antithesis of the weather, with one part of the province\ndrenched in heavy rains, while another has been afflicted by drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farmers,\nwho have lost stock and crops as a result of the drought, have appealed for\ngovernment\u2019s intervention by declaring the region as a disaster area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same\nsituation prevailing in the North West has forced the towns of Mahikeng,\nZeerust and Lichtenburg to rely on tankered water for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nLimpopo, Nandoni Dam in Vhembe District continued to maintain its capacity\nlevels, despite the absence of rain in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\ndams that maintained 100% capacity are Magoebaskloof, Hans Merensky in\nPhalaborwa and Tonteldoos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tzaneen\nDam, however, is at its lowest level due to a wall that is being renovated.\nThis is a temporary measure that affects citrus farmers and consumers that use\nwater for drinking, cooking and washing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the\noriginal article<\/em><\/a> on SAnews.gov.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Article by SAnews.gov.za While the country has enough water to sustain the fast approaching dry winter season, South Africans have been urged to use water sparingly. Current the country is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}