The Department of Water & Sanitation said it was concerned at the Eastern Cape's ever-decreasing dam levels.
The latest report released by the Department of Water and Sanitation on Thursday, showed that the average dam level in the Province is 55.5%.
The Department said that the Algoa Water Supply System, which feeds Nelson Mandela Bay, is of serious concern to the department as it is at 31.4% compared to 72.0% at this time last year.
The Kouga Dam which falls under the Algoa system is at just 14.5% compared to 66.1% at this time last year.
The Amathole Water Supply System, which feeds Buffalo City, is at 60.7% compared to 80.3% last year.
“The rain that fell in the past few days did not do much in terms of increasing the dam levels in the province,” said Department spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau.
“Butterworth is one of the areas affected by the drought hence the municipality had to implement restrictions. The town gets its water supply from Gcuwa Dam and Xilinxa Dam which are sitting at 5.6% and 0.2% respectively,” he said
“The department has had some interventions in this area including drilling boreholes but the yield is very low. However, the department is working on a long term intervention to construct a pipeline to transport water from Tsomo to Butterworth. The designs are still in a process of being finalized,” said Ratau.
He said the department encourages communities to use water sparingly and adhere to the water restrictions. “The department will continue monitoring dam levels and inform communities for better planning,” said Ratau.
