Department urges Tzaneen residents to use water sparingly as dam levels decline
The declining dam levels are a major concern, especially for the agricultural sector, as they require more water use in the province than any other sector.
Residents of Tzaneen and the surrounding areas are urged to use water sparingly as local dam levels continue to decline.
Tzaneen Dam continues to decline and is sitting at 20,64%, compared to 21,51% last week, a decrease of 0,87%. Ebenezer Dam is at 72,09 % this week compared to last week’s 72,95%, a decrease of 0,05%. According to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), dam levels in the province are at 62,7 % this week, declining by 5,4% compared to this time last year, when the province was sitting at 68,1%.
The Limpopo province has 28 strategic dams under the two Water Management Areas (WMAs), which is Limpopo-North West and Oliphants, with the water allocation of 84% for agricultural use, 11% for domestic usage, 4% for mining and 1% for industries.
The declining dam levels are a major concern, especially for the agricultural sector, as they require more water use in the province than any other sector.
The Olifants WMA is currently at 60,6 % compared to last year which was at 64,8%. The Polokwane Water Supply Systems continues to decline, now sitting at 77,5 %, but a considerable improvement when compared to last year’s 52,6 %.
Read: Tzaneen: Water cuts a shambles
The Luvuvhu Water Supply Systems have slightly decreased this year, having recorded 91.6 % this week compared to 93,7 % in the same period last year.
Nandoni Dam is currently steady at 94.66% compared to last week’s 94,85%. Mokolo Dam slightly decreased by 0,62% from 74.30% last week to 73,68% this week and De Hoop Dam went down from 82,83 % last week to 82,66% this week with a decrease of 0,17%.
In relation to the provincial storage, even though the water levels are still at a satisfactory percentage, the province still needs to continue to implement water restrictions so that reliable water provision is sustained until the province gets enough rain to fill all the dams.
Water is a scarce resource and catalytic towards economic development and it must therefore be conserved at all times.
