Drought declared as a Disaster by National Government
The National Disaster Management Centre has officially classified the drought impacting regions like Kouga as a disaster by notice in the Government Gazette.
The official notice calls upon all organs of state to further strengthen support to existing structures to implement contingency arrangements and ensure that measures are put in place to enable the national executive to effectively deal with the effects of this disaster.
Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks, said the drought disaster declaration will unlock funds to assist Kouga Municipality to deal with infrastructure challenges and the drilling of more boreholes.
“We can now apply for some much-needed drought funding from the national government,” he said.
“With less than 40 days of water left in our supply dams, we urgently need R100 million to extend the time frame for the arrival of Day Zero.”
The Kouga Dam dropped to below 4 % of capacity over the past few days.