Four more sluice gates opened at Vaal
Rapidly rising inflows into the Vaal dam have necessitated the opening of four more sluice gates on Friday.
This will bring the total number of gates open at the dam to ten.
Above-average continuous rainfall has led to heavy inflows on the already saturated upper catchments.
More inflows into the dams are expected, particularly the downstream Bloemhof dam, with outflows potentially increased later on Friday or Saturday.
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) will be opening the four sluice gates gradually in hourly increments until 13:00 on Friday.
The water level of the Vaal dam is currently sitting at 118.48% with an inflow of 2 448.24 cubic metres per second (m3/s).
At Bloemhof dam, water outflows are also being increased in two-hour increments from 2 000 m3/s to 2 800 m3/s by 15:00.
The dam level is currently sitting at 110.27%.
"These adjustments are necessary to manage the continuous rising inflows and safe operation of the Vaal and Bloemhof dams," the DWS said.
At Grootdraai dam, the already opened gate has been increased to three metres, owing to the higher inflows of 967.47 m³/s, with a second gate opened to 1 m.
The storage level is at 110.08%.
In the Orange river, the water levels of the Gariep and the Vandekloof dams are currently sitting at 108.25% and 106.09% respectively and overspilling.
"The controlled and uncontrolled water releases at all these dams will lead to overtopping of riverbanks downstream of the Orange and the Vaal rivers, resulting in flooding of settlements that are in the lower-lying areas within the 1-in-100-year floodline.
"People living within the floodline downstream of the Vaal and Bloemhof dams, and who have had to evacuate, should continue to avoid the flooded areas as the river catchment remains oversaturated," the DWS warned.
Comments
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
ESAB South Arica, the leading supplier of high-end welding and cutting products to the Southern African industrial market is based in...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa is sole distributors for Goodwin electrically driven, submersible, abrasion resistance slurry pumps.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
