Pretoria residents urged to conserve water due to falling dam levels
Bonkosi Maphanga, a carwash owner from Soshanguve, says the water restrictions have affected his business negatively because he was not able to wash cars.
The Department of Water and Sanitation urged Pretoria residents to conserve water due to the decline in the Vaal Dam’s water levels recently.
The dam’s water levels have dropped from 97.9% to 97.3% since last week, according to the department.
“Water and Sanitation have appealed to Gauteng water users to conserve water as the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) slightly declined to 98.9% from 99.2% last week. At the same time the year before, the IVRS registered 102.1%.
“The dam stood at 105.7% last year during the same period,” the department stated.
The announcement follows Tshwane municipality’s appeal to residents to use water sparingly as there was a shortage on Rand Water’s side.
Recently, the metro reminded residents to use water with caution as water consumption has increased significantly.
This was as high-level delegations from Rand Water met with the municipality’s officials over ways how to deal with rather than implement water restrictions.
Among other dams that have declined:
– Bloemhof decreased slightly from 100.8% to 99.1% last week.
– Grootdraai Dam level fell to 96.8% this week, from 97.1% the previous week.
– Sterkfontein Dam, a reserve dam in the Free State has been overflowing for several weeks.
The dam remains unchanged at 101.4%, the same as last week. In comparison, the dam recorded 102.8% higher levels last year.
– Katse Dam in Lesotho remains stable at 99.7% for two consecutive weeks.
– Mogale Dam decreased from 98.7% last week to 98.6% this week adding that the dam was at 96.5% during the same period last year.
“We urge all water users to adhere to water restrictions imposed by their respective municipalities and report water leaks to their local municipality,” the department said.
Meanwhile, Bonkosi Maphanga, a carwash owner from Soshanguve, said the water restrictions have affected his business negatively because he was not able to wash cars.
“It has put a financial strain on us because we had to buy Jojo tanks which were not on a budget for us to continue working and not face the same issue repeatedly.”
However, Ipeleng Sepeng from Hammanskraal said she was not affected by the water restrictions because she has a borehole.
The metro has also committed to dispatching roaming water tankers to affected areas should there be water blackouts due to water scarcity.
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