If the recent wet weather brought hopes of the water supply problem being solved, Makana Municipality
has bad news for Grahamstown.
If the recent wet weather brought hopes of the water supply problem being solved, Makana Municipality
has bad news for Grahamstown.
Mzolisi Ndimba of the City Engineers Department says that despite the rain, dam levels are still dangerously low.
“The problem is that for a long time we had absolutely no rain,” he explains, “so when the rain does come the ground immediately soaks it up and nothing goes into the dam.”
Settlers Dam, which provides water for Howison’s Poort dam, is particularly low with water capacity levels being at a maximum of 2%.
Ndimba says that the time it takes for the rainwater in the ground to be deposited into the dam is hard to predict, particularly since the ground has been so dry.
In any case, the rainfall has not been enough to raise dam water levels significantly. Ndamisa puts in plain words that what Grahamstown and surrounding areas need is torrential and heavy downpour, indicating that three hours of continuous heavy rain would most likely make a difference.
“If we can flood the ground, we can flood the dam,” he says. Unfortunately, the South African Weather Service anticipates no significant rainfall within the next two weeks.
