Rising dam levels is encouraging‚ but not enough ‘to make a song and dance about yet’

The average national level of dams is just over the 50%‚ but “we’re not in a situation to make a song and dance about it yet”.

That’s according to Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau‚ who told Radio 702 on Thursday morning that he was encouraged that “recharging the Vaal Dam from Sterkfontein” had seen it rise to its current level of about 42 %.

“We stopped that‚ though‚ on the 22nd as planned‚ because of the rains that have been falling‚” Ratau said.

“But we are also experiencing‚ as you would know‚ high temperatures‚ and it puts us in a situation where we do have some water loss due to that.”

Ratau noted that while the “national average is over 50%‚ we are still below the percentage we were at last year‚ at this time‚ which was over 60%”.

“Therefore‚ we do have a reason to be a bit comfortable‚ but definitely not in a situation to make a song and dance about it yet.”

Water restrictions would remain in place‚ said Ratau‚ as “in essence‚ we still need to see some savings that we can be able to effect from that side”.

He said the restrictions had yielded some “positive results”‚ but lamented that some areas had taken “steps backwards” since they were implemented.