The department of water affairs issued a warning of severe floods for some provinces after heavy and persistent rainfall continues to soak most parts of the country.
“The soils are already very wet and many dams are full. This means that continued rain is going to cause very rapid increase in river levels and possibly cause flooding. A quick increase in river levels will also be encouraged by releases from major dams when gates are opened in order to ensure the safety of the dams”, said spokesman Mava Scott.
This situation is already happening in the Orange-Vaal River System. The Grootdraai and Vaal Dams are full and the Bloemhof is rising quickly. Substantial amounts of water are released. The public living near major rivers and those crossing low level bridges downstream of the Dams are warned to exercise caution. The National Defence Force have been placed on standby for these areas.
“Communication is going on between the DWA and Disaster Management Centres to ensure that warnings are disseminated promptly. The public shall continue to be informed if and when more water is going to pass through the storage dams and the expected river flow levels, especially along the Vaal River”, added Scott.
The flow conditions are rapidly changing in various river systems in response to the prevailing rainfall conditions.
Scott said that the flow levels into the Vaal Dam from the Vaal leg are very high and continue to show an increasing trend. The capacity of Vaal Dam has increased to approximately 105% with 7 gates opened. Outflow from Vaal Dam is about 857 cumecs and about 900 cumecs flows into Bloemhof Dam.
Water level at Bloemhof Dam is rising rapidly and operators have been advised to gradually release up to 400 cumecs. They have been instructed to advise affected Disaster Management Centres to warn the public about the impending increase in water leve3ls
