More than 40 families evicted from their homes along the banks of the Vaal River after heavy rains in the Vaal Dam catchment area will be allowed to return to their properties after sluice gates at the Barrage were closed and flood water receded.
The South African Weather Service has predicted that the heavy rains of the past few weeks may start to subside. The water level at the Vaal Dam dropped from 109% to just 106% - it’s designed capacity – over the weekend despite further weekend rains.
Emergency teams in the Emfuleni district remained on high alert as water levels in the Vaal River, downstream from the barrage, rose by as much as six metres in parts after sluice gates were opened to release more water.
Last week the Department of Water Affairs opened 31 of the 36 sluice gates at the Barrage.
At the Bloemof dam, levels dropped to 92% on Friday when the inflow was 1 600 cubic metres per second but this was expected to increase to 3 800 cubic metres a second.
Last week a Property24 story incorrectly reported that the outflow from the dam was 1 700 cubic centimetres rather than cubic metres per second.
Meanwhile, the Nelson Mandela Bay will know if it will receive the R1,6-million in drought relief funding by the end of the month. Already a project to widen the pipeline from the Gariep Dam – which is currently overflowing – will get underway immediately but will only be completed by August next year.
The project will pump about 270 megalitres of water to the Nelson Mandela Bay area every day and will help to resolve chronic water shortages for residents living there.
The council is also planning to build a water desalination plant capable of producing about 20 megalitres of water a day to augment critical water shortages in the region.
While waterways inland are flooding, the picture in the Eastern Cape remains dire with the Kouga Dam at just 36% of capacity, the Churchill Dam at 34% and the Impofu Dam at 27%.
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.