Troubling water times for Pretoria residents

“In light of Gauteng being one of the provinces that is not expected to experience rainfall in winter, the Department of Water and Sanitation is pinning hopes of respite of the dam levels on the communities’ cooperation to conserve as much water as possible until the next summer rainfall period.”

June 7, 2019

Reitumetse Mahope 1 minute read

Consumers have been asked to use less water, as dam levels kept on falling this week.

“With winter approaching and rainfall scarce, the levels of the integrated Vaal River system is continuing to fall,” said water and sanitation department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau.

“The system has been hovering just above the neutral 50% mark for a long time before it started to pick up to the 70% mark in the last couple of weeks,” said Ratau.

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“This week, the system has again fallen”.

Dams that have shown drops this week are the Vaal, the Grootdraai, Sterkfontein, Katse and Mohale dams.

“In light of Gauteng being one of the provinces not expecting rainfall in winter, the department is pinning hopes on communities conserving as much water as possible until summer.”

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Ratau said all the recorded declines across the catchments had resulted in the Vaal River system being critical for sustainable water supply for socio-economic activity in Gauteng.

“This definitely strengthens the need for continued water conservation and wise water use in the province.”

Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said water restrictions were still continuing, “but the city is managing the demand as the reservoirs are still within acceptable levels to supply water uninterrupted”.

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The areas hit by water restrictions are:

-Ga-Rankuwa

– Ga-Rankuwa industrial sites

– Mabopane

– Akasia Park

– Kruisfontein

– Brakfontein

– Thaba Tshwane

– Blair Athol

– Pretoria West

– Sunnyside