WITH four months of 2013 behind us – that’s a third of the year gone already – it’s time to have a look at East London’s rain figures again.
It’s been a pretty good year up to now with consistent falls. To the end of April, 379mm had been recorded at Buffalo City Municipality’s Chiselhurst measuring station. The average there over 102 years for the same four months is 334mm.
East London escaped the flooding in April which I hear hit parts of the Wild Coast hard. Falls up to 400mm, apparently, were recorded further north and rivers came down with a vengeance.
Anglers will be pleased about that because most Wild Coast rivers have been heavily sanded up for many years now. There’s nothing like a good flood to clear out a river. There’s been good rain around East London too so that the ground has been able to absorb moisture, allowing for solid plant and grass growth. Farmers must be happy because dams also look good.
In fact the all-round appearance of the countryside is lush and green. We can’t complain. We can complain about a few other seriously important water matters, however, where lack of servicing and failure to keep infrastructure working efficiently, is letting us down in a big way.
That includes the city’s inability to deal with storm water which floods many parts, particularly poorer areas, and the never- ending sewage filth that flows out of manholes, into rivers and streams. Beaches and rivers, including some of the city’s prime water recreational facilities, are polluted again and again. In East London, the Nahoon and Quinera rivers, in residential areas, bear the brunt of sewerage neglect, spewing excrement, rags and toilet paper into these two waterways, which double as giant sewers whenever it rains.
I’m told there is no longer even one professional engineer employed by our municipality. What a sad and unacceptable state of affairs it is.
Anyway, that’s my gripe for the day. Let’s be happy about the rain without which we would be miserable.
Just about all storage dams our end of the Eastern Cape are full to overflowing. These include Binfield, Bridle Drift, Gubu and Kat River dams. Laing, Nahoon, Rooikrantz, Sandile, Sterkspruit, Umtata, Waterdown, Wriggleswade and Xonxa on the White Kei are all 100% or more of capacity.
Kommandodrift on the Tarka River is 56%, Lubisi on the Indwe River is 86%, and the Ncora dam on Tsomo River is 91%.
The rainfall table, showing millimetres recorded for Chiselhurst with the final column being the 102-year average, now looks like this:
Good rain so far in 2013
It’s been a pretty good year up to now with consistent falls. To the end of April, 379mm had been recorded at Buffalo City Municipality’s Chiselhurst measuring station. The average there over 102 years for the same four months is 334mm.
East London escaped the flooding in April which I hear hit parts of the Wild Coast hard. Falls up to 400mm, apparently, were recorded further north and rivers came down with a vengeance.
Anglers will be pleased about that because most Wild Coast rivers have been heavily sanded up for many years now. There’s nothing like a good flood to clear out a river. There’s been good rain around East London too so that the ground has been able to absorb moisture, allowing for solid plant and grass growth. Farmers must be happy because dams also look good.
In fact the all-round appearance of the countryside is lush and green. We can’t complain. We can complain about a few other seriously important water matters, however, where lack of servicing and failure to keep infrastructure working efficiently, is letting us down in a big way.
That includes the city’s inability to deal with storm water which floods many parts, particularly poorer areas, and the never- ending sewage filth that flows out of manholes, into rivers and streams. Beaches and rivers, including some of the city’s prime water recreational facilities, are polluted again and again. In East London, the Nahoon and Quinera rivers, in residential areas, bear the brunt of sewerage neglect, spewing excrement, rags and toilet paper into these two waterways, which double as giant sewers whenever it rains.
I’m told there is no longer even one professional engineer employed by our municipality. What a sad and unacceptable state of affairs it is.
Anyway, that’s my gripe for the day. Let’s be happy about the rain without which we would be miserable.
Just about all storage dams our end of the Eastern Cape are full to overflowing. These include Binfield, Bridle Drift, Gubu and Kat River dams. Laing, Nahoon, Rooikrantz, Sandile, Sterkspruit, Umtata, Waterdown, Wriggleswade and Xonxa on the White Kei are all 100% or more of capacity.
Kommandodrift on the Tarka River is 56%, Lubisi on the Indwe River is 86%, and the Ncora dam on Tsomo River is 91%.
The rainfall table, showing millimetres recorded for Chiselhurst with the final column being the 102-year average, now looks like this:
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos