Western Cape 'slightly better off' - but some dam levels still worrying

The average level of dams in the Western Cape currently stands at 41,9%, the provincial disaster management said on Monday.

This time in 2018, dam levels were at 21.3%.

The dam supplying the City of Cape Town with water is standing at 54%, compared to  23.7% in 2018.

"We are slightly better off.  We are a lot better off than we were last year, but there are some regions in the province that are a lot worse off and that remains the Karoo region largely," disaster management spokesperson James-Brent Styan said.

Styan said Beaufort West and Kannaland  remained under "severe stress".

"The department and our other partners have multiple programmes in place to alleviate the situation on the ground."

Styan said they were very grateful for the Black Hawk helicopter the province received over the weekend to battle fires.

The helicopter which has a 3,000 litre capacity, was immediately deployed to fight the  Franschoek mountain fires, which have been raging for a week.

"It certainly made a difference, that fire has been largely contained over the weekend."