Cape Town dams are just under half full but filling up slowly

Cape Town’s dams are just under half full and filling up slowly but surely.

“Dams that supply the metro are slowly but surely recovering, increasing by 0.7% for the past week of June 10-16,” the city said on Tuesday.

Dams levels are now at just under half of their capacity (48.7%), while the city’s water consumption for the past week rose by 19-million litres a day to a total of 542-million litres a day. This is up from 523-million litres a day last week.

Mayoral committee member for water Xanthea Limberg said: “It is good news to see dam levels steadily increasing for two weeks in a row. Although daily consumption has also increased slightly, we remain within our daily allocation of 650-million litres a day.

"We remain cautiously optimistic that the city will receive further rain in the coming months. The city would like to thank the water warriors who continue to save this precious resource,” she added.

At this time last year, dam levels were at just over 36%, said the city.

Here is a breakdown of dam levels according to the city of Cape Town website:

• Berg River - 73.5%;
• Steenbras Lower - 39.5%;
• Steenbras Upper - 70.4%;
• Theewaterskloof - 40.1%;
• Voëlvlei - 55.3%; and
• Wemmershoek - 40.4%.