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Cape Town’s dam levels
A recovery worth of sharing.
Latest update: 6 September 2021
Cape Town Dams Full.
MAJOR CAPE TOWN DAMS FULL
BERG RIVER dam is 100.9% full compares to 57.6% in 2017
STEENBRAS LOWER dam is 102.0% full compare to 42.2% in 2017
STEENBRAS UPPER dam is 94.5% full compared to 101.1% in 2017
THEEWATERSKLOOF dam is 103.3% full compared to 26.8% (!) in 2017
VOËLVLEI dam is 99.9% full compared to 25.7% in 2017
WEMMERSHOEK dam is 100.2% full copared to 41.7% in 2017.
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video from CapeTownMagazine.com's 2008 flight to show Cape Town's dam level improvements.
Latest update: 21 October 2020
Dams supplying Cape Town hit 100% capacity in October, and the City of Cape Town has taken the decision to reduce the water restrictions that have been in place for years, as well as to lower the tariff. This will take effect from 1 November 2020.
CAPETONIANS' WATER-SAVING EFFORTS WERE A HUGE SUCCESS
Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Mr Anton Bredell, explained the decision, saying “Before the drought the city’s daily water use was above 1.2 billion litres. The city and its citizens managed to reduce consumption below 500 million litres at the height of the crisis. This was a major contributing factor to the fact that the city didn’t run out of drinking water. At the moment the city’s use is around 690 million litres per day.”
WESTERN CAPE DAMS IN 2018 AND NOW
Marine conservation photographer, Jean Tresfon, took to Facebook to share his images of the dam in various stages of the drought. "It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words", he writes, "so for interest’s sake here is a visual representation of the 6 major supply dams at both low and high levels during the past 3 years."
Cape Town's biggest supply dam, Theewaterskloof, providing 53.5% of total storage capacity. On 9 March 2018 I...
Posted by Jean Tresfon - Marine Conservation Photographer on Monday, September 28, 2020
Voelvlei Dam, Cape Town's second biggest supply dam providing 18.3% of total storage capacity. Back on 9 March 2018 the...
Posted by Jean Tresfon - Marine Conservation Photographer on Monday, September 28, 2020
CAPE TOWN WATER RESTRICTIONS
"From 1 November there will be no more water restrictions in the city and the tariff charged will be the lowest tariff, being the no restriction, water-wise tariff" the City of Cape Town announced on thursday, 21 October.
WATCH: THEEWATERSKLOOF DAM OVERFLOWS
On 25 September 2020 videos of the largest supply dam for Cape Town overflowing flooded social media.
I enjoyed it so much I read it out loud. Look forward to your next one hopefully about Theewaterskloof overflowing at last pic.twitter.com/oFunW6wuIN
— carolyn cramer (@thecaz) September 25, 2020
PLUS MORE VIDEOS ON THE DAMS INCREDIBLE RECOVERY
A slow pan to make you smile!
In 2018, Theewaterskloof - the largest water-supplying dam in the province - was at it's lowest with only 9%. Today, 2 years later, it has made a full recovery at 100.5%.
A roadtrip is in order to see the joyous news in person.
More footage of a gorgeously full Theewaterskloof from the guys up at @CapeCanopyTour. So grateful! pic.twitter.com/WTIgqnDoej
— carolyn cramer (@thecaz) September 26, 2020
One last video... Just look at all that water.
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THE BACKGROUND TO CAPE TOWN’S WATER SITUATION
In 2018 Cape Town came close to becoming the first major city in the world to run out of drinking water. However, Capetonians pulled through. We took two-minute showers instead of baths, we used “grey” water to flush our toilets and we only flushed when necessary. Those who could afford to buy water tanks did so and saved the rainwater off their roofs while the hospitality industry invested in water re-usage systems and the government installed desalination plants.
Cape Town has come a long way and is used as a water success story all over the world. We’ve learnt from our past and we’ve adjusted our future. Today, our dams are finally almost full.
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