No need for water restrictions

2003-12-22 22:08

Helmo Preuss

Johannesburg - There was as yet no need to impose water restrictions, but consumers should use water wisely, Rand Water spokesperson Mike Nxasana said on Monday.

"We still have plenty of water in the Vaal and Sterkfontein dams, so there is no need for water restrictions, but people should use water wisely and not waste it," Nxasana said.

In the past seven days Rand Water has experienced a record water consumption of up to 4.2 billion litres a day due to the heat wave, when maximum temperatures in Johannesburg have generally been above 32°C.

This heightened demand has put Rand Water's infrastructure under severe pressure to maintain its 55 reservoirs at acceptable levels. The current situation has also strained municipalities' infrastructure.

Rand Water maintains about 3 000km of pipelines to service 12 million people and half South Africa's manufacturing industry.

"At the moment the Vaal Dam is 48% full and we draw about one percent of water per week from it. We are therefore appealing to our customers to use water wisely so that adequate supply can be provided to everyone in our area of service," said Rand Water's chief engineer potable water production Graham Pearson.

The Sterkfontein Dam, which is deeper and narrower and has far less evaporation losses than the Vaal Dam, is 98% full.

Without any more rain, these two dams could provide water for at least the next 18 months, which could be stretched to three years.

'Dry' cycle South Africa is entering a "dry" cycle similar to the 1983 to 1992 period, when rainfall was below normal.

At present, the drought conditions are not that widespread with only about one eighth of the country affected.

The affected areas include the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, the north western parts of Limpopo, the eastern Free State, the north eastern regions of Mpumalanga and parts of the Northern and Eastern Cape.

In these areas the October and November rainfall was the lowest for these months in more than 90 years of record keeping.

The Cape Town municipality did impose water restrictions during the winter months, when the Cape receives most of its rain.

Late winter rains meant that their storage dams started filling in August, so that the water restrictions could be lifted.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)