The Western Cape is continuing to bare the brunt of the country’s worst drought in a century with dam levels hovering at 36%.
The province has appealed for assistance from national government with the drought and water crisis engulfing it at a meeting of President Jacob Zuma’s coordinating council on Tuesday at Tuynhuys, in Cape Town.
To make matters worse, recent hot and windy weather has led to a 1% decrease in dam levels over the past week alone.
The Central Karoo town of Beaufort West has run out of dam water.
Residents now rely on boreholes and recycled sewage water.
The Western Cape Local Government Department’s James-Brent Styan says the situation is very concerning.
“The zero is a tricky thing to talk about because we can never say for sure it changes. Sometimes there’s rain, we had some good rain this past week. It’s difficult to say but it is a matter for concern, unfortunately it is the reality of the situation we are in that we have to consider that we might run out of water, but at this stage its very difficult to say when we are also dealing with the crisis across the entire province you may see some areas worse off than others, but it changes on almost daily basis.”
