With more rainfall expected in summer, water resource management must be a focus - Top SAWS scientist

The South African Weather Service’s lead scientist, Christine Engelbrecht, has said water resource management must be a focus, with more rainfall expected this summer.

In a media briefing on the seasonal forecast for the season, experts are predicting above-normal rainfall conditions due to the La Niña event.

The La Niña, which is a climate pattern where the Pacific Ocean’s surface waters are cooler than normal, sees increased rainy conditions in some parts of South Africa. 

Engelbrecht said that with dam capacity currently sitting at more than 90% in many dams across the country, measures need to be put in place to manage those levels.

"In terms of impacts also on water storage levels at the moment for the whole of the country, all water storage levels of the big dams have quite a good or near full of their full capacity in terms of water storage. The exception is basically the southwestern Cape and some parts of the Eastern Cape regions, but for the summer rainfall regions, I think that will definitely then also have an impact on managing the water resources in terms of dam levels and so forth," said Engelbrecht.