Cape Town dam levels increase by 'record-breaking' 20%

Lester Kiewit speaks to Doctor Kevin Winter of the University of Cape Town's (UCT) Department of Environmental and Geographical Science.

Cape Town dam levels have increased by 20% to almost full capacity in just one week, according to water and sanitation figures released on Monday (15 July). 

Total city storage across its six major dams now stands at 93.2%, up 19% from 74.1% a week ago... with more rain on the horizon. 

The largest dam, Theewaterskloof, is at 97% and will almost certainly reach 100% within the next few days.

Winter says the increase 'is certainly something of a record'.

Large inflows of rain might even lead to dams overflowing, says Winter.

"When you get early rains like this, it doesn't mean we're out of the comfort zone, because we have a five-month period and a warm summer coming up and we've got to get through that... but we should and, hopefully, get more rain coming this week... but what happens after that, we don't know."

-  Doctor Kevin Winter, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science - UCT

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.