Much needed rain falls in Kouga
The wider Jeffreys Bay region has received much-needed rain over the past two days.
However, it does very little to alleviate the drought currently being experienced in the region as well as the rest of the Eastern Cape.
On Tuesday, only 4 mm of rain was received at Joubertina, 8 mm at Kareedouw and 17 mm at Patensie.
Yesterday, until 5 pm, another 4.8 mm of rain was recorded at Kareedouw, while 16.6 mm was recorded at Patensie.
These towns form the catchment area for the Kouga Dam which has dropped to 24 % of capacity, while the other major dam in Kouga, the Impofu Dam is at 16 %.
The Kouga Municipality received R 151 million in drought relief funding from National Treasury last year to augment water supply with additional groundwater supply.
The projects are scheduled for completion by the end of June 2020 and will alleviate Kouga’s reliance on the dams and ensure water security for the coastal towns such as Jeffreys Bay, St Francis Bay, Cape St Francis and Humansdorp.
The search for groundwater in the Gamtoos Valley continues as the water level in the Kouga Dam continues to drop without much more rainfall predicted over the next couple of months.
Kouga was one of the few Eastern Cape Municipalities that did not have to pay any of the drought relief funding back to National Treasury as all the projects being funded were already operational.
Kouga is regarded by National Treasury as one of the better-run Municipalities in South Africa. To put this into perspective, the City of Cape Town received R 500 million in drought relief funding, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro received R 200 million, while a rural municipality like Kouga received R 151 million.
Photo: Joey Nel