I suppose to many this might come as a shock that such a large part of the country could be faced with water outages. I have been surprised the Southern Cape area has managed to continue supplying water to their residents. That said, it was their “rainy”season and their dams at least managed to maintain their low water levels.
The municipality of Cape Town might not be faced with a similar situation this summer but if history is anything to go by then summer 2011/2012 could slam water outages on the Mother City. One never know but it is only hind sight that is the perfect science.
I don’t have the nerve to wait till the dam levels start dropping and rainfall pattern decrease before investing in a water conservation our water augmentation system. I really like the luxury of a running tap.
This extract from The Weekend post.
MOSSEL Bay,already under the whip as the prolonged drought in the town threatens the water supply to the PetroSA gas to liquids refinery,is facing more bad news following a new calibration of the Wolwedans Dam level.
The Water Affairs Department,the dam’s owner,says the level is in fact 16.62%,and not the 18.5% initially calibrated.
Although 34mm of rain had fallen in the dam’s catchment area last week,the municipality said it had not been enough to make a significant difference.
If the dam level drops to the 10% mark or below,PetroSA will not be allowed to extract water for its refinery,which means it might have to shut down.
Based on the latest calibration,Mossel Bay has 20 days’ less water than previously thought,but this excludes the 200Ml of water below the gauge plate of the dam,which could be purified to a quality suitable for human consumption.
“This was obviously disappointing news and puts the municipality under even more pressure in an already difficult situation.
“More than 100000 people who live in the urban areas and are dependent on the municipality for their water face the risk of being without water altogether if the dams should run dry,” the town manager said.
