Cape Town dams now 65% full after rain from ‘intense’ cold front

All this rain in Cape Town has to go somewhere, right? According to the City, it seems that a fair amount has found its way into the region’s dams.

As of Tuesday 23 July, Cape Town’s six major dams have a combined level of 65%. That’s an increase of 3.2% over last week, and a ridiculous 12.1% since the beginning of the month. The increase comes after a number of intense cold fronts arrived in the province this month.

On a dam-by-dam basis, the gains since 1 July are even more impressive as the table below suggests.

At the time of writing, the above six dams store more water within its walls this year than 2015. When compared to the drought year of 2017, we have more than double the amount of water stored this winter.

Unfortunately, the City’s report only takes Sunday’s info into account, so we’re not too sure how much rainfall the likes of the Theewaterskloof and Wemmershoek received, but both dams have actually seen less than average rainfall thus far this month.

Water consumption also took a steep drop last week, with Capetonians using just 557-million litres per day. Two weeks ago, that figure stood at 583-million.

Feature image: The Voelvlei Dam in September 2018, by City of Cape Town