The South African weather service’s latest seasonal forecast warns that dam levels will remain a major concern.
Garth Sampson, spokesman for the Port Elizabeth weather office, said: “There is no indication of any extreme events at this stage, thus dam levels will remain a major concern.”
“There does seem to be good occurrences of light rain over the interior of the Eastern Cape for January and February 2018 but the total amount should still remain near normal for this time of year.”
The Amatola system which serves Buffalo City Metro and its surrounds has an average dam level of 78.82%. This system has seen all but one of its dam levels rise since around the same period last year.
The system’s worst dams are the Wriggleswade Dam sitting at 72.92% and the Bridle Drift Dam sitting at 75.25%.
The system’s best dam is the Rooikrantz dam which has a level of 99.2%.
The Algoa system, which serves Port Elizabeth and its surrounds is faring far worse with an average dam level of 25.29%. All but one of this system’s dam levels have gone down this year.
The system’s worst dams are the Kouga Dam which is sitting at 7.66% and the Churchill Dam which is sitting at 19.06%.
Its best dam is the Loerie Dam which currently has a level of 87.79%.
The Xilinxa and Gcuwa dams, which serve Butterworth and have had consistently low levels, have seen their levels drop again this week.
The Gcuwa Dam has dropped 35.2% from 59.14% on January 2 to 23.94% yesterday. In the same time period the Xilinxa dam dropped 0.89% from 6.11% to 5.22%.
“Water will remain a high priority during the rest of the summer and autumn phase. It is advised that the current water restrictions over Nelson Mandela Bay and other areas facing low dam levels remain in place. Perhaps stricter measures should be considered,” said Sampson.
“Agriculture stress is still anticipated due to the prolonged water shortages in certain areas and while pockets throughout the Eastern Cape may well have sufficient water for agriculture, most areas will be negatively impacted,” he said.