Sixth sluice gate opening at Vaal as dam levels rise
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is preparing to open two more sluice gates at the Vaal dam, to bring the total of open sluice gates to six, as the dam levels rise to 113.54% owing to heavy inflows from the upstream catchment.
This is to manage the inflow of 2056.50 cubic metres per second (m3/s) of water flowing into the dam.
The DWS has also been increasing, in two-hour increments, the outflows at Bloemhof dam, which has a water storage level of 107.30%, from 800 m3/s to 2 000 m3/s by 17:00 on Thursday.
There are potential plans to further increase outflows from both dams on Friday.
Further, one sluice gate has now been opened at Grootdraai dam, which has a current water storage capacity of 105.71%, with inflows of 141.72 m³/s.
In the Orange river, the Gariep and the Vandekloof dams are at 107.13% and 105.3% 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 one in 100-year floodline.”
People living within the floodline downstream of the Vaal and Bloemhof dams have had to evacuate and should continue to avoid the flooded areas as the river catchment remains oversaturated.
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