June 2023 –By Bev Mortimer
Every time it rains heavily in Qeberha/ PE and Kouga, residents and the municipal authorities in these areas anxiously watch the level of the Kouga dams to see if the levels will substantially rise to alleviate, if not stop the water crisis.
The SA government has given millions of Rands to the PE Metro and Kouga Municipality over the past five years to find alternative sources of water. PE Metro is trying several ways to stop water leaks and improve water supply there.
In Kouga some boreholes have been dug and a water treatment plant has been constructed, but as in PE, other reliable, alternative water sources have not been found sadly. Boreholes used by Kouga for decades are great but the pumps cannot run or they break down during load-shedding and pipes develop leaks, so continual maintenance is needed.
A main source of water for both municipalities, particularly for Kouga, until very recently, has been Impofu and the Churchill dams. The Impofu dam cannot now be used as it is almost completely empty, and both municipalities and residents lament the fact that these most recent rains have had little or no impact on the dams.
Kouga areas have had floods in the past few five years but there has been no apparent urgency to do water harvesting, such as storm water drainage to collect water for reservoirs to help in droughts in the Kouga area.
On 3 September 2018 the Eastern Cape’s Churchill Dam held less than 25% of its storage capacity. Ten days later the dam was 100% full after very good rains.
Water experts, who know the Langkoof well, say it has suffered severe drought since 2018 and this has also added to the problem of reduced water flow to the Kouga dams. Today there are some dams on farms in the orchards and surrounding areas.
Plus there is too much alien vegetation in the Langkloof and/or Baviaans that blocks the water leaving and flowing to the Kouga dams which naturally did flow there in the past. When the area does get some rain, storm water gets channeled to those dams, or gets soaked up and blocked by heavy wattle vegetation etc, according to water experts, who know those areas well.
They say that authorities in PE and Kouga cannot expect huge amounts of water flowing from the Langkloof to fill up the Kouga dams. They have said there has to be really heavy rains, perhaps floods, in the Langkloof or Baviaans, for lots of water to reach and then fill the Kouga dams. Somehow Kouga and PE areas need to find an alternative, reliable and continuous supply of water in their own areas .
Here is what Japie Buckle said in an interview , plus what other experts said in interviews in 2021…
St Francis Chronicle 