Both Steenbras dams are considerabaly smaller than the big three, roughy a quater of the size of the bergriver dam. 15 Steenbras dams could fit into Theewaterskloof. Below we have a look at the respective dam levels. Values are expressed as percentages.

As one can see, our most important dams are lower than previous years. Should this dramatic drop have occured several weeks ago the City of Cape Town would have been likely to have implemented further water restrictions. Currently the only water restrictions in place through out the greater Cape Town area is an irrigation ban between 10am to 4pm.

It is difficult to predict what the state of our dams will be like in a months time as summer comes into full fruition. We are only left to hope that water is used wisely.

Low-level restrictions are already in place including a ban on watering gardens between 10am and 4pm.

Adding to the low dam levels, rainfall this year has also been below average.

A UCT climatologist said of the past 10 months, eight had had below-average rainfall. May, June and July, usually the wettest months, were “drier than normal”.

Climate models showed this situation was likely to become more common in the years ahead and it could drive up the price of water.

Residents were being urged to conserve water. This appeal comes as climate change is expected to lead to rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns.

The City of Cape Town’s water department was due to meet the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on Wednesday but has not released any details.

The city’s draft annual report says 19 percent of water was “unaccounted for”. This term refers to the difference in the amount of water purchased and in the city’s distribution system, compared with the amount which is sold to customers.

The report for the past financial year calls for measures to prepare for a “water-constrained future”. Some of the alternatives are desalination of sea water and the greater use of groundwater.

According to the draft report, some water-saving techniques are showing results. One of these is a pressure-management system which reduces the pressure of the water supplied to city consumers during off-peak periods.

This results in fewer leaks. A project like this at Brown’s Farm in Philippi produced an estimated saving of R8.2 million annually. After the project was introduced, there was an immediate drop in consumption.

Levels of the six major dams supplying Cape Town are at the lowest they have been in four years. On November 7, levels stood at 86 percent. Last year at this time they were at 93 percent and at 102 percent in 2009. Levels peaked in 2008 at 103 percent and were 99 percent in 2007.

Farouk Robertson, spokesman for the city’s water and sanitation department, said the city had “never relaxed” its appeal for residents to use water wisely.

Robertson said the city had expanded rapidly over the past few years and economic activity had increased.

This had led to more water consumption.

He urged residents to “amplify water conservation efforts”.

One tip was that residents should monitor the moisture of the soil in their gardens and, if necessary, introduce composts which would reduce the evaporation of water.

Another measure was to use buckets to wash cars, instead of hosepipes.

Robertson appealed to home-owners to watch their water meters and report leaks immediately.

“If you are wasting water, you are depriving other people of good quality drinking water. Know what you going to do, before you open the tap,” he said.

Peter Johnston, a climatologist with UCT’s Climate Systems Analysis Group, said for May, June and July, rainfall was less than 80 percent of the long-term average.

Johnston added that as December approached and it got hotter, around 1 percent of the volume of dam water would be used or lost due to evaporation each day. Because, November had been cooler, it had lessened the impact of evaporation.

“This is the sort of thing we can expect. We should get used to this scenario occurring more often and it’s a call for all us to watch our demand and usage.”

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry was not immediately available for comment.

Source: IOL

The fact that the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry could not be reached may imply one of two things. They were really not available for comment, or they don’t really have the means to do much about the situation other than increase the price of water and hope people start using less.

By reusing your greywater for irrigation and fitting a Multi-flush to your toilet the average household can save up to 50% on their water. Investing in these tecnologies won’t even require a lifestyle change.

Unless these dams are able to rise significantly the City of Cape Town will most likely impose drastic water restrictions. Water restrictions will most likely include irrigation restrictions and carwash limitations.

A fact to remember is that should the City of Cape Town impose water restrictions in a means to conserve water supplies, water tariffs will surely skyrocket just as electricity tariffs have reached new highs.

Source: DWA

The margin between available water and that used was about 8% (45 000 000m³) of safe supply, the department said in a statement, issued following the release of its latest water reconciliation strategy for the region.

According to projections contained in the report – which covers the six-month period up to March this year – this margin could be “fully utilised” within the next six to eight years.

“Population growth and the subsequent growth in the economy have been identified as major factors that are placing exponential strain on the water available for users of the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS).”

The department said users included the City of Cape Town, as well as the municipalities of Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Swartland and Saldanha, together with agricultural users.

“At present, the system can safely provide 556 000 000m³ a year. The 2010 water requirement on the system was already 511 000 000m³, of which 32% was used by the irrigation farmers and 68% by the urban dwellers supplied by the system.

“According to projections, the remaining 45 000 000m³ will be fully utilised anywhere between 2017 and 2019, depending on the growth in the area and the city’s… further successful implementation of its water conservation and water demand management programme.”

Support

The department called on Cape Town residents to use water more sparingly.

“Without the support of the residents, the City of Cape Town would not have secure water resources,” it said.

Building more big dams was not feasible.

“According to the study, only a few surface water development options are available for augmenting water supply to the City of Cape Town and surrounding towns.”

However, the department was exploring alternative strategies to ensure sufficient water was available for future use.

These included “planning on going out on tender for a feasibility study of a large-scale sea water desalination plant” within the next month.

“The study will determine the most appropriate location and size for such a plant,” the department said.

The city also planned to do a feasibility study into the large-scale re-use of water, which would start within the next few months.

“[Other] investigations by the city, into the potential for large-scale ground water development and utilising the Table Mountain Group (TMG) aquifer as a sustainable water resource, are also underway.

“A decision on the implementation of a pilot wellfield development in the TMG will be taken by the city in the next couple of months.”

Increasingly urgent

The department was also looking at two surface water options.

One involved pumping winter rainfall run-off water from the Berg River into the Voelvlei Dam; the other, diverting water from the Dwars River in Michell’s Pass, near Ceres, into the same dam.

The department said the eradication of invasive alien plants along the Western Cape’s river courses was becoming “increasingly urgent”.

“Each property owner along the rivers feeding into our dams and below the dams must begin to take responsibility for ensuring that their properties are clear of these water-thirsty plants.”

While augmentation of the WCWSS was receiving high-level attention, it was important to realise that all such interventions would take “many years” to deliver.

“The efficient use of the current supplies, including the curbing of water wastage and water losses, is of critical importance.

“All water-users in the system are called upon to use their water judiciously in support of the city’s water conservation programme,” the department said.

Serious implications

In December last year, water affairs’ Western Cape chief director, Rashid Khan, told Sapa that Cape Town would need to review its water-use strategy due to the “quite large numbers of people coming in” to the metropole and surrounding areas.

He said at the time that assumptions made by Cape Town’s water planners in 2007 were “now being overtaken by some serious developments, that is [population] growth”.

Khan also noted that the effects of climate change, if severe, could bring forward the construction of augmentation projects.

In this regard, climate forecasts for the next few decades do not bode well for the region’s water supply.

According to a 2005 department of agriculture report, the Western Cape “is likely to become warmer and drier over time… [with] reduced water in the rivers”.

Also in December last year, water affairs said any increase in demand for water had serious implications, “as the next augmentation project may well have to be fast-tracked to ensure an adequate supply of water to every city, town and industry that gets its water from the WCWSS”.

According to City of Cape Town statistics, “migration growth” is about 16 000 households a year, compared to the city’s “natural growth” rate of 11 000.

Working on an estimated five people per household, this means the city’s population is growing by about 135 000 people a year, of whom about 80 000 are migrants.

Source: News24

Dams supplying water to the City of Cape Town are at their lowest in 4 years.

Even with a slightly higher than normal rainfall in the Western Cape over the month of May our dam levels are still falling. The months of May, June and July have historically been the highest rainfall months for the region. From this chart it can be seen that it would take much more than just normal rainfall to boost the levels of our dams.

Should these dam not fill during June, July and possibly August the City of Cape Town will need to look at measures to conserve water.

Three Gorge Dam

The drought has affected parts of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which are located near the middle and lower reaches of the river. These areas have seen 40 to 60 percent less rainfall than normal.

In Hunan Province, fishermen near the Dongting Lake, the second largest freshwater lake, have had to seek jobs outside their hometown after the water level in the lake plummeted to a record low 21.74 meters two weeks ago.

The accumulative rainfall in the Dongting Lake area since January fell 50 to 60 percent from the recorded average of past years, according to the provincial meteorological station.

The central region of the lake has now become a vast grassland. “On May 24, 2010, the lake area was 1,649 square kilometers and long-time survey shows that the lake area is 900 sq km on average for May, but this year the lake area is 60 percent smaller than the average,” said Han Qinzhe, an expert from Hunan Provincial Meteorological Research Institution.

Similarly, the water volume in the Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake in Jiangxi Province, has shrunk to 740 million cubic meters –87 percent smaller than in previous years.

The center of the lake has also become a grassland. “Normally we would have our dragon boat race in May, but now there is no water, only grass,” said a villager surnamed Qiu in Hongwei village of Xinjiang County.

Experts warn that continuous drought could lead to an explosion in the population of field mice if the drought doesn’t subside by July.

From May 25 to June 10, more water is being discharged from the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in an attempt to combat the drought in downstream provinces, increasing the water flow from the previous 10,000 cubic meters per second to 11,000 to 12,000 cubic meters per second.

Source: xinhuanet.com

As severe droughts affect many areas around China it is clear to that climate change has the power to cripple any economy. Water shortage will no doubt affect the agricultural produce which will have a  knock on effect on the well being of the people.

It is inevitable to we must conserve water if we are not already doing so now.

The river – 294km long – runs through several agricultural communities and is an important element in the development of the tourism industry in areas between Franschhoek and Velddrif.

Iaan Badenhorst, manager and resident at the Berg River Resort, said debris (mainly logs) and alien vegetation were the biggest problems in the Paarl area.

“The vegetation takes oxygen out of the water and affects the ecosystem. The government needs to put money into solving the problem when it can still be solved. This river is essential to farmers.

“Their business depends on the quality of the water. If it isn’t right the EU cancels export contracts, which is a major loss to the farmer and the local economy,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Francis Steyn, said the river’s degraded ecosystem was not being managed correctly and would “drastically affect” human health, the rural economy and ecosystem if nothing was done.

“The problem we are addressing is caused by alien vegetation dominating the river system and replacing all the indigenous plants that make the natural system a healthy one with water of good quality.”

Steyn said the degraded system affected the entire population of the Western Cape because of the massive amount of work, food and exports produced in the river basin. He said it would cost R30m a year for the next 10 years to improve. The initial funding for the regeneration project came from the Department of Agriculture, which would soon be financially assisted by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s Working for Water Programme.

Since the project started, it had created more than 3 000 jobs.

A meeting was held on Friday when officials from the provincial departments of agriculture, environmental and water affairs, Eskom, Farmsecure, the Drakenstein Municipality, Disaster Management and the private sector discussed the project.

Source: IOL

The berg river is not only essential for agriculture but it is also an essential source of drinking water for the greater Cape Town area. Should the water quality in the river and the dam diminish this would also impact the water quality in the City.