Cape Town’s dams are now healthier than they were in June 2016

There’s some more good news this week for thirsty Cape Town. As of 11 June 2018, the city’s total dam storage levels stood at 31.8%, marking an increase of 2% over the previous week. Overall dam levels have seen a 10.9% increase since 7 May.

At the same point in 2017, the city had just 20.9% stored within its six largest dams. In 2016, that figure stood at 29.6%. So currently, Cape Town has a larger amount of water stored than it did at the same point in June 2016.

Individual dams continue their positive trend, albeit see smaller gains this week than last.

The Theewaterskloof Dam is now 21.3% full, up by 1.3% over last week’s report. This comes despite no recorded rainfall in the area since 4 June. The Voëlvlei Dam, which did receive a healthy 16mm downpour on 9 June, gained a further 3% this week. It’s now 24.8% full.

Note: The system’s total capacity is slightly less than 900 000 ML. When full, the Theewaterskloof holds 480 188, the Voëlvlei 164 095, the Berg River 130 010, Wemmershoek 58 644, Steenbras Lower 33 517 and the Steenbras Upper 31 767. Graph data from City of Cape Town.

The Berg River Dam is now nearly as full as it was at the same point in 2015, up by 2.5% to 54.3%. The Wemmershoek bested it, and is now more full than its was at the same point in 2015. It holds 58.2% of its potential storage, up by 1.4% over last week.

Total dam storage levels for Cape Town now stands at 31.8%, an increase of 7% in two weeks

Finally, the Steenbras Lower Dam gained 1.4% this week, sitting at 40.9% full. The Steenbras Upper Dam is now at 77% full after gaining 7.8% in reserves during the past week. In terms of percentage gains, it’s the best performer of the week.

The City of Cape Town’s minor dams are also all seeing gains this week, bar one. The Land-En-Zeezicht reservoir in the Helderberg was the only puddle to lose capacity, dipping by 1.3%. Table Mountain’s Hely-Hutchinson Dam is now 100.3% full, while Simon’s Town’s Lewis Gay Dam — which was just 0.9% full at the same point in 2016 — is now 92.4% full at present.

In terms of raw volume stored, Cape Town now has 285 000 megalitres in reserves, up from last week’s 267 000. However, water consumption has increase notably since. 532-million litres per day are now drawn from the City’s dams, this up from 505-million last week.

Feature image: Steenbras Dam in November 2016 via City of Cape Town