The current status of water supply for the greater East London area (known as the Amathole System) is sufficient for the next two years under the current drought conditions.  With the existing drought, the situation could get worse, if consumers don’t use water sparingly, the Amatola Water Board has warned.

Amatola Water Senior water resources manager Sieg Rousseau said a full on community awareness campaign was required to offer residents tips on how to save water.

“One of the things we need to make the community aware of is not to leave taps open. You can drive through many villages and you will see taps running. Poverty also plays a role as brass fittings of taps are removed and sold for scrap, which then leaves the taps running until it gets fixed.  Communities must also take ownership, so if they see vandalism of the water reticulation infrastructure taking place, they must report it to the local municipality,” said Rousseau.

“Parts of the Eastern Cape had less than normal rain for the past four months.   Due to the lower rainfall we have less runoff water within the catchments leading to the dams not filling. This has lead to dam levels dropping and lower than that of water levels at the same time last year. However, we are not as badly affected in East London as compared to places like Port Elizabeth at this stage,” said Rousseau.

Depending on the rainfall for the balance of the summer season, restrictions might need to be implemented.

East London which gets its water from the Wriggleswade, Bridle Drift and Nahoon Dams, is better off than some of the smaller towns like Chintsa and Cathcart. The smaller towns’ water supply is more seriously affected by the current drought.

The level of Bridle Drift Dam is at 35%, but fortunately this can be supplemented from Wriggleswade Dam currently at a level of 86%.

Amatola Water had been transferring water from Wriggleswade Dam during the past one and half months to Nahoon Dam to raise the level of the dam from 46% to 71%, which represents an increase in storage of 5,0 million cubic metres. The average water demand out of Nahoon Dam is in the order of 10 million cubic metres per year.

The Cathcart Community has been having problems with dirty and smelly water over the last few weeks, a problem that has been caused by the drought conditions.

The Sam Meyer Dam which supplies Cathcart is currently at a level of 10%, which is about 2m deep.

The very low water level, according to Amatola Water’s operations manager for the southern region André Dyer is the main cause for the smell of the water treated at the water treatment works.

“The drought is only affecting certain parts of the Eastern Cape. Some dams are very low while others are even at a 100% of its storage capacity.  People need to be aware of the drought and use water sparingly,” said Dyer.