The Department of Water and Sanitation says it is monitoring the water levels at the Vaal Dam amid heavy downpours, following the South African Weather Service yellow level 2 warning.
According to the department spokesperson, Wisane Mavasa, Vaal Dam is currently 98.89% full.
She also indicated that they have implemented the necessary precautions in line with dam safety standards.
“The department is currently releasing 61.2 cubic metres per second, using five valves at the dam, to ensure that there is balance between the inflows and outflows at the dam.
These releases, while they are meant to ensure that the dam’s capacity stays within the range of 100%-103% at the current inflow levels, the water flow is insignificant, in that they will not make the river overtop the banks.
The Vaal Dam has eight valves in total that are used for river releases.
On normal day-to-day releases it uses two valves ranging from 16.8 mᵌ/s to 17.6 mᵌ/s, in order to keep a natural flow in the river,” said Mavasa.
Furthermore, the department also highlighted that controlled outflow releases have been activated at the Bloemhof catchment area.
“The Bloemhof Dam that is located downstream of the Vaal River catchment, sits at 100.94% and has an additional 16% flood absorption capacity.
These releases are meant to facilitate the proper management of water levels and to keep the dam at or below its full supply capacity of 100%,” explained Mavasa.
In addition, Mavasa said precautionary measures have been activated in case there is a breach of the Dam’s full capacity to prevent the bursting of their infrastructure and heavy flooding.
