Kouga water levels are critical

KOUGA residents have been warned to start saving water or face the consequences.
Despite restrictions the current waste of water in the area has made stringent measures necessary the Kouga Municipality said.
Spokesman for the municipality, Mfundo Sobele, said the water levels are currently at 30% and are rapidly declining.
“The situation is serious and residents need to realise it,” Sobele said.
Pending the outcome of a mayoral committee meeting, the KM will look at introducing penalties for those who are contravening the water restrictions. Should the restrictive measures be approved by council, a notice informing Kouga residents will be published in newspapers.
The Kouga is dependent on the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro for its water and every decision they make regarding water restrictions is closely monitored by the KM.
Metro spokesman, Luncedo Njezula, confirmed the shocking news that the metro only has enough water for the next 10 months should there be no significant rainfall.
Despite a notice in Our Times in November informing residents of the water restrictions, people have been spotted watering their gardens with hose pipes. According to municipal records, the water consumption over the past festive season was 155950kl – about 15% more than the festive season of 2008.
“We understand the water consumption was more over the festive season because of visitors in town, but it could still have been less,” he said.
The following is currently prohibited:
• Watering of gardens, lawns and grassed areas.
• Washing of paved areas, walls, roofs, buildings and similar structures, vehicles or other equipment.
• Filling swimming and paddling pools, fountains and ponds.
• The use of hose pipes, sprinklers and drip systems.
• The connection of a hose pipe or any form of irrigation system to a tap supplying water from the municipality‘s water supply system, except for fire fighting purposes.
The notice states that residents are allowed to water gardens and flower beds with a handheld container.
The water crisis has hit Gamtoos farmers the hardest. Their normal water quota has been restricted to only 30%.
Farmers have held mass prayer meetings throughout the Eastern Cape to pray for rain. This week Gamtoos Irrigation Board general manager, Pierre Joubert, released a statement to Gamtoos farmers to inform them that the 30% restriction on their quotas would stay the same for the rest of the water year.
According to Joubert this decision was a result of a meeting last week between the Gamtoos Irrigation Board, the Nelson Mandela Metro and the Department of Water Affairs.
“The 30% restriction is not a clear enough indication of how desperate the situation is. The situation is critical. If the current drought continues, then by mid year the dam will only be 20% full and irrigators will be subjected to only 10% of the normal quota.” Joubert said that the current restrictions were unchanged in the hope that the situation will improve before July 1.
The light rains this week brought a glimmer of hope, however, the South African weather service forecaster Garth Sampson said that more rain was only expected in another few days.
The rain measured in the catchment areas this past week:
Joubertina – 0,8mm
Patensie – 0,4mm
Humansdorp – 10,0mm
Kareedouw – 5,0mm
The dam levels are as follows:
Kouga - 43,3%
Churchill - 22,8%
Impofu - 51,4%
Loerie - 28,7%
Groendal - 46,4%