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Despite the lifting of water restrictions on the Kouga-Loerie Sub-System, more than six months ago, after the Kouga Dam first spilled in September 2023, the Kouga Municipality has confirmed that the 50 litre per person, per day, policy is still in force in the Kouga region, except for the Gamtoos Valley where water restrictions have been lifted.
Kouga executive mayor, Hattingh Bornman, said that after heavy rain in September last year which resulted in the Kouga Dam spilling for the first time in eight years, on September 29, the Department of Water and Sanitation lifted the water restrictions on the Kouga-Loerie Sub-System because of improved storage levels in the dam.
Regardless of the increase in dam storage levels, he said that since the Kouga-Loerie Sub-System supplies water to the Gamtoos Valley, which only includes Hankey and Patensie and not to the rest of the Kouga region, which receives water from the Churchill Dam and Impofu Dam, water restrictions in the region will remain in place.
Bornman said that the 50 litre per person, per day, policy is therefore still in force.
“The large Impofu Dam, the region’s largest catchment, is still less than 50 percent full, and the eight-year drought in Kouga is not yet broken,” said Bornman.
He further said water restrictions for the rest of the Kouga region will only be lifted when the dam levels are above 70 percent.
Wisane Mavasa, the spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation said that unlike the Kouga system, the state of storage in the Kromme system has not adequately recovered; hence the need for water restrictions to remain in force.
The Kromme Sub-System comprises Churchill and Impofu dams.
“Water restrictions are lifted when the systems recover adequately, and the available resource is sufficient to meet the water requirements,” said Mavasa.
She further said that from the November 2023 analysis, a water shortage still exists in the Kouga system due to an approximately 25 percent reduction in the system’s yield based on the latest hydrology update study, which concluded that the Kouga Sub-System is over-allocated; hence the need for restrictions despite the Kouga Dam level at 100 percent of its supply capacity on the decision date of November 1, 2023.
“What we see in the Algoa system is that the 2023 water restrictions were only relaxed from the previous, harsher restrictions observed since 2015 due to an improved state of storage in the dams within the Algoa system,” said Mavasa.
According to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, as of April 9, the dam levels are as follows, Kouga - 85.03 percent, Churchill – 87.72 percent, Impofu – 41.35 percent, Loerie – 62.39 percent, and Groendal – 93.01 percent. The combined percentage is 69.05 percent.
