Cape Town dams swell, with more rain likely in August

Cape Town dams are officially full, with snowmelt still to come.

The latest weekly dam statistics released on Monday show the total city storage at 100.8% in the wake of yet another wet weekend.

The dams are 1.7% fuller than a week ago and almost 30% fuller than in 2022, the latest statistics show. Theewaterskloof, the city’s largest dam, is at 104.1% capacity and has been overflowing for the past three weeks. 

Voelvlei, the city’s second-largest dam and the only one that has not reached full capacity, is 89.5% full, a 9.1% increase from three weeks ago. 

The past weekend’s cold front brought heavy snowfalls to most of the higher mountain peaks, along with a sharp dip in temperature.

Officially the city’s hydrological cycle only ends in September, which means more rain could be on its way. With groundwater now saturated this could mean floods in the event of more heavy downpours, and the city has issued tips on how to minimise the effects of flooding.

Zahid Badroodien, the city's head of water and sanitation, said despite the good storage figures there was no room for water complacency. “While we certainly welcome the healthy dam levels, we cannot allow this to give us a false sense of water security for the future,” he said.

“To help secure Cape Town’s water future, the city’s water and sanitation directorate is focusing on its new water programme plans to bring an extra daily 300-million litres of water online by 2030.

“Our water resilience is important for our residents and for economic growth in Cape Town. For this reason, we need more than just dams to ensure our water supply is resilient for years to come as clearly highlighted by our customers during the drought, to help navigate future climate shocks.”

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