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Vaal dam gates to stay shut – for now

FILE PICTURE: The Vaal Dam wall. Pic: Marianne Schwankhart. Circa January 2010. © The Times
FILE PICTURE: The Vaal Dam wall. Pic: Marianne Schwankhart. Circa January 2010. © The Times

As the rain continues to pour in Gauteng the Department of Water and Sanitation is reviewing its decision on when to open the Vaal Dam sluice gates.

On Friday the department believed that the dam would reach capacity on Sunday and had planned to open at least two of its sluice gates.

But spokesman Sputnik Ratau said rain measurements had somewhat decreased and the dam was not expected to reach 100% on Sunday.

“Initially we had expected that the Vaal will reach 100% by Sunday but as we observe the inflows we realised that they have gone down a bit and we are expecting that the Vaal will get to 100% by Monday or Tuesday‚” he said.

For the past week Gauteng has been experiencing constant rain with many areas experiencing flooding. By Thursday the Vaal dam was sitting at 85%‚ a level it had not seen in two years. The department warned residents living near the dam to evacuate as they may be exposed to flooding.

But seemingly the rain has abated and the urgency to open the sluice gates has abated for the time being.

“We won’t necessarily start releasing through the opening of the sluice gates at the Vaal water tomorrow (Sunday) as initially planned.

 “We will be dictated to by what happens on a day to day basis.”

Meanwhile Bloemhof dam reached 100% on Saturday with the department opening sluice gates to release 500 cubic meters of water per second by the afternoon.

 Ratau added that the number of sluice gates at both of the dams that will be opened in the next coming days will depend on the rain measurements and they will be monitoring the situation.