Cape Town dam levels now just below 60%

Recent rains has brought a much needed mid-winter refill to much of Cape Town’s outlying dams.

According to the City of Cape Town’s latest dam report, its reservoirs are now 58.8% full collectively. This is an increase of 1.8% over the previous week, or 16-billion litres. The gains are largely thanks to two days of rainfall during the previous week.

Last week, dams saw a collective increase of just 0.2%.

The Theewaterskloof Dam’s resurgence has slowed though July and into August. It’s up by just 0.9%, topping out at 43.5%. It remains 6.3% short of the levels recorded in 2016, and more than 30% shy of 2015’s high water mark.

The Voëlvlei Dam however showed no signs of slowing down its recovery. The second-largest dam in the Western Cape Water Supply Scheme is now 62.9% full, up by 3.5% over the previous week. That’s notable, considering that it was just 22.2% full at the same point last year.

The Berg River Dam increased slightly to 88.3% this week, gaining 1.5% in volume. It’s currently in better shape than it was at the same point in 2015.

Its neighbour across the Franschhoek Valley, the Wemmershoek Dam, gained just 0.3% this week, topping out at 83.3%.

The Steenbras Upper and Lower dams both saw gains this week, with the former filling by 7.4%, and the latter by 1.9%. Steenbras Lower remains under 60% full, while its Upper counterpart is once again beyond the 100% full mark.

Water consumption has increased to 519-million litres per day across Cape Town, up from 505-million last week.

Feature image: City of Cape Town