GEORGE NEWS - George Municipality has granted permission for a prayer day for rain to be held at the Garden Route Dam on Friday 16 December at 11:00. It is being organised by the Garden Route Dam Action Group (Gardag).
The dam storage has dropped to 47,88% by Wednesday morning, 7 December (from 51% a week ago).
The rainfall for the seven days up till 7 December is 0,5 mm. George has had several months of low rainfall while water demand has been increasing.
The weather forecast for the next couple of months is unfavourable.
On Tuesday, some Gardag members went out to the dam with a measuring tape to illustrate with a photo how dramatically the water level has dropped from overflowing in November last year.
Gardag chairperson Desireé du Preez said the water has receded by 40 metres (horizontally), measured from the dam wall to the current level, and by about 7 m vertically.
"As the drinking water crisis deepens we want to appeal to citizens and visitors to save every drop of water and be extremely vigilant not to waste water for our rain season is only in March next year. Let us cooperate and ward off the possibility of opening a tap and not a drop coming out. We should all ponder the question of exactly when Day Zero is calculated to kick in and how long we can stretch our supplies."
Tougher water restrictions
More stringent water restrictions will be implemented soon.
The public has time till 12 December to comment on the proposed restrictions which include limiting all households to a maximum of 15 KL of water per month.
Emergency tariffs will apply where consumers exceed the limit.
For the proposed water restrictions and applicable emergency tariffs, click here.
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