Cape Town – The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a yellow level 3 warning for disruptive rainfall expected over the south-western parts of the Western Cape from Wednesday evening persisting until Thursday.
“A cold front associated with an intense upper air system is expected to result in heavy rain and showers over the south-western parts of the Western Cape starting from Wednesday evening and persisting through to Thursday. The bulk of the rainfall is expected on Thursday morning,” SAWS said.
“Rainfall accumulations may reach 40-60mm with the potential of 80mm in the mountainous areas.”
SAWS warned heavy downpours may lead to flooding of roads, low lying bridges and formal and informal settlements and disruption to services such as electricity and water.
It added mudslides and rockfalls may also occur in susceptible areas.
A yellow level 2 warning has also been issued for damaging winds and waves expected between Alexander Bay and Plettenberg Bay from this Thursday into Friday.
Meanwhile, showers in some catchments during the past weekend did not yield significant inflows to dams in the Western Cape.
This as the province’s water supply system, which consists of the six largest dams, is currently sitting at 61.31%, a small uptick as compared to 60.76% last week.
Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Andile Tshona said traditionally May was supposed to be one of the wettest months n’t filling up, triggering the need to intensify water conservation initiatives.
“The Gouritz river catchment area, which covers Little, Central Karoo and the coastal belt of the Southern Cape, is sitting at 53.38%, a better yield compared to 46.43% same time last year. The catchment area includes the eastern side which has prospects of summer rainfall.
“On individual dams, Kammanassie, Koos Raubenheimer and Roodefontein dams saw an increase of over 5%, while Bulshoek Dam is the only dam that has seen a decrease of more than 5%.
“The Theewaterskloof Dam, the largest dam in the province accounting for significant water supply (45% of the Western Cape water supply system dams) is currently 58.66%, a notable decline compared to 66.28% last year. The observed water use for Theewaterskloof pumping is tracking below the previous year’s actual usage,” he said.
Cape Times