WATCH | Theewaterskloof dam withers in 16 months

This is real‚ there is not much water left.

That is the unequivocal view of drone pilot Stephan Myburgh whose aerial footage of Theewaterskloof dam in 2016‚ 2017 and 2018 shows how Cape Town’s main source of water has been transformed into a desert-like landscape by drought.

Myburgh returned to the same places at the dam over time and his footage shows how the water level has dropped dramatically.

Engineers are building a temporary coffer dam inside Theewaterskloof‚ near Villiersdorp‚ in order to extract some of the last remaining 10% of its water.

"We have a dam that is now desiccated‚" Anthony Turton‚ a water scientist and former specialist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research‚ told the Sunday Times in February.

"You will need something on [tropical storm] Domoina scale to resaturate the desiccated sand pile‚ to bring it to the point where you can start having liquid water again."

March 22 is World Water Day.