Ongoing drought in Eastern Cape a priority for Government
The South African Government is working to alleviate the impact of the ongoing drought in pockets of the country.
In a statement, the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation said it is working with the affected provinces, municipalities, other national departments as well as the private sector.
A number of initiatives are being implemented which will take some time to turn the situation around.
“It is important to note that the current situation follows on the national and regional drought that began in 2014, and which saw a great deal of RSA impacted upon negatively.
“Even though since late 2017 into 2018 there has been some recovery in large parts of the country, this natural act/phenomenon will take even longer to turn around due to the fact that in the 2018 and 2019 summer rainfall periods, the country experienced late rains and high temperatures leading to high evaporation rates and very little recharge of the country’s water sources.
“These are but some of the impacts of climate change which are a reality,” said the department.
Kouga Municipality received R 151 million from the national government to augment current water supply with groundwater.
A number of boreholes have been dug around Kouga to bring more water onto the grid.
The best yielding boreholes were discovered in Jeffreys Bay and Humansdorp.
The Gamtoos Valley, including Hankey and Patensie, remains a problem with low yielding boreholes and the Kouga Dam slowly running out of water.
The Kouga dam is under 28 % of capacity, while Impofu Dam is around 16 %.