Frankly, My Dear, I Do Give A Dam!

Dam Levels

Dam Levels

Winter is our rainy season, most falling in June and July. It is supposed to be raining right now. We really need rain.

If you look at the graph, Weekly dam levels in Cape Town, you can see how low our dam levels are, compared to last year, 2015, when they were severely low, causing water restrictions throughout the whole of last summer, Dec 2015/Jan 2016. (Which wasn’t helped by the severe heat wave and daily temperatures of 38C.)

You have to look at the total storage capacity, as some dams may be fairly full, but are also very small. The largest dam is Theewaterskloof, which is only at 43.5% capacity.

The total storage of all the dams this year is only 48.1%. For the same week in 2015 the total storage was 61.5% and in 2014 it was 101%.

I don’t know how we will cope this coming summer if we don’t get more rain right now.

So where’s all our rain gone?

I think the UK might have the answer to that one!

 

28 thoughts on “Frankly, My Dear, I Do Give A Dam!”

  1. samexploreslife

    You are correct, the UKers have been having a lot of rain apart from last 2 weeks we have been dry, we would share if we could but I don’t think my blow is strong enough to go as south as South Africa 🌍 😦 Sorry

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Crystal Cotton

    I love the title of this post! It does seem like a rather damning predicament! I’ll ask mother nature if you can have some of our rain. I don’t particularly care that much for it since it ruins the perfect hair day… but I guess I’d gladly take it over a drought.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. pensitivity101

    I would gladly send some of the rain back! At the monent though we are enjoying a little heatwave which is great as it’s the Marina Party tonight and the car park is filling up nicely.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Garfield Hug

    I will send the rain God over!! Argh! I know what it is like. Thankfully we have Newater now and with this recycled water program, we are also supporting this technology to Australia and Malaysia.😊Maybe CT might look to lil red dot for help

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Please do send the rain God over 🙂
      Normally we get enough winter rain to last right thro summer, no problem. It is just the last few years that things have changed, and it takes time to work out new solutions.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. Midwestern Plant Girl

    Dam! 😉
    Normally, I’d be childish and riddle my comment with ‘dams’, but I’ll spare you.
    It’s very interesting to read about how other areas deal with water needs. In Colorado, they have the same deal, reservoirs fill and reports are given.
    Here in Illinois, many have Lake Michigan water. Yes, people using it get put on restrictions occasionally, ok most of the time. However, not like you, more like odd/even watering days is all. My rich clients can waste water to their hearts content 😲 as long as is on the correct day.
    Me, I’m lucky to be on my own well. Most folks think it’s a bad thing, as they don’t know how to take care of it. Obviously, my plumber husband keeps everything in order.
    Call me paranoid, but I don’t want “city water”. They put things in it like fluoride and other things they think are ‘good’ for us. I call it “the Kool-aid”. If there was to be an accident (search ‘Flint Michigan water’) or terrorism, everyone is out of water. I’ll be smelling sweet and not thirsty!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Yep, I had to double check I was spelling dam right! 🙂
      The tap water in SA is some of the cleanest in the world, but I still filter all my drinking water.
      As for bore hole water (pumped from the water table) they now also have the same garden watering restrictions as the rest of us paying for it. There are no restrictions to what you use inside your house, just very steep price increases.
      You’d think, living by the sea, we could use desalination plants, but I think it is too expensive.
      Well I just hope we get some more rain, because with our sunshine, a lot of water simply evaporates.

      Liked by 1 person

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