By ROD AMNER
Jim Cambray measured 34.6mm of rainfall at Park Road for 15-21 December 2022. Most of it (33mm) fell in one day.
This brings Park Road’s rainfall total up to a respectable 109.4 mm for the month, with another 30-40mm predicted for the rest of the month by Norwegian forecaster Yr (www.yr.com).
Temperatures ranged from 13.3-28C for the week. Temperatures are expected to reach 34C on Thursday, 22 December.
There is now a healthy overflow from Howieson’s Poort Dam into Settlers Dam, captured in these photos by Simon Pamphilon on Wednesday, 21 December.
Pumping at Howieson’s Poort – which supplies water to the Waainek Water Treatment Works on the city’s western side – has been negatively affected by Eskom load-shedding schedules, as pumping can only be done during the most extended period between scheduled load sheds.
In addition, on 18 December, the Makana Municipality reported a “pumping failure” at Howieson’s Poort.
This has led to a reduction of water available from Waainek and a frustrating reversion to the ‘one-day-off one-day-on’ water provision schedule.
But, the overflow from Howieson’s Poort Dam is slowly raising Settlers Dam above the 30% level reported by Makana Municipality last month.