DROUGHT: APPLICATION TO EXTEND DISASTER STATUS
Mossel Bay Municipality
NEWS RELEASE
DATE : 9 MARCH 2010
DROUGHT: APPLICATION TO EXTEND DISASTER STATUS
The Town Council of Mossel Bay decided at its monthly meeting on 25 March 2010 to support the application of the Eden District Municipality to extend the declaration of Mossel Bay as well as other municipalities in the Southern Cape as a disaster area for a further period of three months.
These districts were declared as disaster areas on 13 November 2009 for a period of three months because of the serious drought being experienced at present, the worst in the 132 years that rainfall records have been kept. The disaster status was extended for a further month at the end of January 2010. Disaster status is granted for a period of three months by the National Disaster Management Centre, after which the District Municipality concerned can apply for an extension.
“The rainfall for March was particularly low, and the drought condition is unfortunately deteriorating. According to the long term forecasts for our area, it is unlikely that any significant rain can be expected before May or June 2010. Based on daily consumption the Wolwedans Dam was expected to be down to 29,9 per cent by 1 April 2010.
“As far as could be ascertained it will be the first time since the dam’s completion in 1992 that its level has dropped to below 30 per cent. It must also be taken into consideration that not all the water from the dam is at the disposal of the Municipality as about half of the water is destined for the Petro SA plant,” said the Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz.
According to Dr Gratz, good progress is being made with the effluent water purification plant that is under construction at present. The project is on schedule to start producing the first purified effluent water in June 2010.
The plant will produce approximately five megalitres of water a day, which will then be supplied to PetroSA and obviate the need for the company to withdraw the same amount of water from the dam. This amount of water will therefore remain available for municipal use.
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