The Department of Water and Sanitation’s weekly status of dams report reveal that the country’s water levels are on a continual decrease due to the lack of rains in the last few weeks. This week, the overall national storage capacity of the country’s reservoirs is at 92.6%, a small reduction from last week’s 92.9%, and a significant improvement from last year’s 82.3%.

The biggest Water Supply System, Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) with 14 dams across four provinces dipped faintly from 99.7% last week to 99.5% this week. Some of the Water Supply Systems that have declined are; Amathole from 74.7% last week to 74.3% this week, Butterworth from 99.6% to 99.3%. Both Crocodile East and West experienced a reduction by the tiniest margin from 100.3% to 100.2% and 99.1% to 98.4% respectively. 

Continuing with the downward movement in as far as Water Supply System are concerned were Luvuvhu from 101.1% to 100.9%, Orange from 99.0% to 98.3%, Polokwane from 101.7% to 101.4%, and Umgeni dropped from 98.6% to 98.3%.

On the positive note, Algoa Water Supply System with dams supplying water to Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is among the two systems that have recorded slight improvement, increasing from 14.9% last week to 15.0% this week. However, the system remains low as dams within it struggle to recover from the persisting drought in the area. Bloemfontein also experienced a marginal increase from 98.0% to 98.6%.

The following Water Supply Systems have shown no changes in water storage from last week; Cape Town is still sitting at 75.4% and Umhlathuze is unmoved at 100.1%.

Seven out of nine provinces have recorded downwards movements in water levels namely, Free State from 100.3% to 99.9%, KwaZulu-Natal from 89.4% to 89.1%, Limpopo from 88.2% to 88.1%, Gauteng from 100.7% to 100.5%, Mpumalanga from 95.2% to 95.1%, North West from 80.7% to 80.4% and Northern Cape  from 107.3% to 105.2%.

On the improvement segment is Western Cape which increased from 63.2% to 63.6% and Eastern Cape from 69.9% to 70.0%.

The Gariep, which is South Africa's largest dam, was 98.3% last week and is sitting at 97.7% this week. While Sterkfontein Dam, a reserve dam within IVRS, is at 100.4%, showing an increase from last week’s water level of 100.3%. Vaal Dam has declined from 102.1% to 101.4%.

The Department of Water and Sanitation continues to urge the public to save and use water sparingly as the country peters out the dry winter season. South Africa remains a water scarce country and is considered as one of the 30 driest countries in the world with an average rainfall of about 40% less than the annual world average rainfall. South Africa has an average annual rainfall of less than 500 mm, while that of the world is about 850 mm.