NATIONAL NEWS - The ongoing drought in the Greater Karoo area of the Western Cape continues to be of great concern.
The Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning in the Western Cape, Anton Bredell paid a visit to the region today where a briefing was held with representatives from various councils in the region.
An update was provided on the implementation of the Greater Karoo Drought Recovery Action Plan. This plan was drawn up and adopted on 30 January 2019 by the Central Karoo Drought Recovery Task Team.
“The overall progress and impact of the Recovery Action Plan has been very good. Collectively the projects rolled out have contributed significantly to the improved situation in the Greater Karoo wherein there are currently sufficient water levels in all reservoirs and thus no water shortages being experienced in any areas of the affected towns,” Bredell said.
Bredell says that the projects have further contributed to mitigating the impact of the drought in ensuring water security in the short term.
“This has given the task team breathing room for the investigation and implementation of medium to long term solutions. One of these includes the Blossoms pipeline project.”
In the past two financial years the provincial department has provided drought relief and water augmentation projects to the value of R26.8 million to 4 municipalities worst affected in the Karoo. These are Beaufort West Municipality (R8.96m), Laingsburg (R8.8 million), Prince Albert (R2 million) and Kannaland (R7 million).
In total across the entire province, the department has spent R82.5 million over the past financial year.
The provincial Department of Local Government is the lead department for coordinating all drought related support and advisory services in the province.
“We appreciate the assistance of all partners and stakeholders and continue to urge continued cooperation and consultation. As a province it is our role to coordinate the relief efforts and we continue to do so,” says Bredell.
He has urged the message that water resources in the towns be managed adequately and continuously.
“We continue to recommend that communities in the Karoo region reduce their consumption as far as possible and we would suggest that communities lower consumption to 50 litres per day and that the local councils continue to apply stricter water restrictions. That may help ensure the reservoir levels get managed more efficiently. We also urge communities to report water leaks and other breaks and technical challenges to their local councils.”
This remains the worst drought in recent memory, an unprecedented event. The department has several experts on the ground on a permanent basis monitoring the situation.
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