Farmers in the key citrus growing area of the Gamtoos valley, west of Gqeberha, have been told to prepare for “day zero” on July 1 as water levels in the nearby Kouga dam continue to drop.
Vegetable farmer Noel le Roux, who has to rent land hundreds of kilometres away in Steynsburg and Hofmeyr to meet his contract obligations, confirmed the situation was dire.
“They are predicting day zero to be July 1 unless we get good rain before then,” said.
The dam’s water level dropped to 4.9% on Tuesday, said Gamtoos Irrigation Board CEO Rienette Colesky.
The farmers’ supply will be cut off when levels reach 3.5%, while the valves will be turned off entirely when the dam reaches 3.1% full.
At that level, the water is below the sluices and cannot be pumped out.
“We have had no significant rain, and none is expected in the near future,” said Colesky.
They are predicting day zero to be July 1.
— Farmer Noel le Roux
The crisis has been brewing for the last few seasons as a stubborn drought grips the province, resulting in poor rainfall in the dam’s catchment area in the Langkloof.
Almost no rain is predicted to fall in the catchment in the next two weeks, while a three-month forecast to June shows a 40% less chance of rainfall till then.
However, a long-range forecast to the end of August predicts a 40% greater chance of precipitation between from June until August.
In March, just 19.5mm of rain fell at Loerie, 17mm at the dam wall and 26mm at Stuurmanskraal, upstream from the dam wall.
Stuurmanskraal is the official measuring point for rainfall in the catchment area.
“We foresee that we would be able to supply domestic and agriculture water up until the end of June,” said Colesky.
Meanwhile, desperate local farmers proposed mounting high-capacity pumps on a barge to pump the remaining water into the irrigation canals, said Colesky.
In response, the irrigation board had brought water department to the district to explain to farmers how the dam worked.
“There is no way you can float a barge on the dam,” she said.
The gradient is too steep to get a barge onto the water while there is also a lack of high-capacity pumps that would need to pump 1,000l per second to match current supply into the canals.
“What we are currently supplying is just maintaining the system,” Colesky said.
Another factor was that the dam also has to supply local municipalities such as Hankey and Patensie and the Nelson Mandela Bay metro with water for domestic use.
“In terms of operating rules with the water department, we are obliged to keep 2.74 million litres of water for domestic use,” she said.
Meanwhile, government will proclaim new water quotas on July 1.
The conditions haven't improved at all ... But we are trusting the Lord.
— Khaya Katoo, citrus farmer
Until then, Colesky believes the board will be able to supply sustainable water until mid-June when the canal system will close for its annual two-week maintenance shutdown.
There are about 6,600ha of land under citrus in the Gamtoos valley, which exports about nine million cartons of fruit a year.
About 130 farmers rely on water from the dam. Usage is monitored through a system of 750 water meters that are read twice a month.
Farmers in the area have already suffered an 80% cut to their water quotas.
The water shortage will mean reduced crops and smaller fruit.
Local citrus grower Khaya Katoo, who has farmed in the district for 17 years, estimated he might lose as much as 30% of his crop by volume this year.
With the harvest season running from May to September, Katoo hoped the water would last long enough to at least get the first crop off the trees.
“The conditions haven’t improved at all, and the dam’s levels are going down,” he told Sunday Times Daily. “But we are trusting the Lord.”
Meanwhile global shipping company MSC diverted one of its large container vessels to Nqura port to offload nearly 2,000 desperately needed refrigerated containers.
The ship, the MSC Altair, was bound for Lomé in Togo, West Africa, when the company ordered it to turn around and head to Nqura port, near Qqeberha, to unload empty refrigerated containers.
Captain Salvatore Sarno, chairperson of MSC in SA, said he had persuaded company headquarters in Geneva to let him divert the ship.
“There is a shortage of reefer containers all around the world because all the empty containers are sitting in China,” he said.
With SA’s citrus season about to start, it was vital for exporters to have immediate access to refrigerated containers.
“Otherwise it would have been a catastrophe,” he said.
Sarno said MSC had enjoyed “very good” cooperation with Transnet and the National Ports Authority to unload the vessel as speedily as possible so that it could still make its arrival slot in Tomé.
Port workers unloaded the 1,995 containers from the MSC Altair in less than 47 hours.
“SA terminals are second to none in Africa,” he said. “Last week in Durban, they were unloading 30 containers per hour.”
Once loaded with fruit, the reefer containers will be transhipped to Durban or Cape Town for loading onto vessels bound for SA’s export fruit markets.
— Shortage of refrigerated containers another headache for citrus farmers
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