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DAM-L heavy rains in RSA, dams filled to capacity (fwd)
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Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 10:31:03 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Ryan Hoover <ryan@irn.org>
Subject: heavy rains in RSA, dams filled to capacity
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And the Rain Keeps Pouring Down
Business Day (Johannesburg)
December 3, 2001
Posted to the web December 3, 2001
Louise Cook
No immediate sign of flooding, but country's dams are filled to capacity
THE country has just had one of its wettest Novembers in years with 118,7mm
of rain being measured. Most of the rain fell over the Free State and
KwaZulu-Natal.
And there appears little respite for the next two weeks as the weather
service predicted more rain over large parts of the country .
Water Affairs and Forestry department engineer Brink du Plessis said there
was no immediate danger of floods, but warned that the country's dams were
filled to capacity.
"Heavy, ongoing rain could result in floods and crop damage," he said.
Department spokesman Themba Khumalo said engineers were on the lookout for
any signs of possible flooding. The department is responsible for issuing
warnings to those who might be hit by floods.
"People living below the flood line of rivers are the most vulnerable,"
Khumalo said. "It is actually illegal to live there, because they can be
washed away easily if the rivers overflow."
Most of the rain over the past week fell in the Free State and
KwaZulu-Natal. Weather service forecaster Evert Scholtz said all rivers
were full and more rain was expected over the lowveld, southern Mozambique,
the central and eastern parts of the country and in KwaZulu-Natal.
"From Wednesday we're expecting a trough to cut through the lower upper
air. A line of moist, tropical air is expected to move from the northern
parts of Africa into SA.
"This line of tropical air has been with us since October, but varies in
strength and becomes weaker and stronger," Scholtz said. He said it could
rain for another two weeks, particularly over the Eastern Cape and along
the west coast.
Farmers are also watching with concern how the weather patterns unfold.
According to the weather service, many people are calling in to inquire
about the possibility of floods. In the eastern Free State farmers already
have suffered damage to the wheat crop when heavy rain stopped them from
getting onto the land to harvest. However, Grain SA does not expect
significant damage to the overall crop, as the hail and rain affected only
a small part of the province.
Nico Hawkins, spokesman for Grain SA, said there was no doubt that the
quality of part of the wheat crop would suffer.
"But the rest of 2,4-million ton crop is still intact. If it carries on
raining, and at the wrong places at the wrong times, wheat quality will be
affected."
Red wine producers from Stellenbosch are also holding their breath after
heavy rain and moist air caused damage to the vines.
The wine producers' organisation, Vinpro, said white wine cultivars were
not damaged, but the extent of damage to red wine grape cultivars would be
known only later. The quality of the grapes suffered when continuing recent
rain in Stellenbosch, Paarl and Wellington caused plant diseases in the vines.
Deciduous fruit in the Western Cape was affected by continuing rain and
moist air, but the producers' trust chairman, Anton Rabie, said the adverse
weather would only affect small parts of the overall crop.
"We're definitely not expecting the crop to be smaller than last year's,"
he said.
Meanwhile, all the major dams are full and some have had their sluice gates
opened.
Du Plessis said the sluice gates of the Van der Kloof dam in the Karoo near
Colesberg were opened recently when the dam became too full. Altogether
1400 cubic metres of water a second was gushing out of the dam into the
Orange River at present.
"That is not a lot of water for a large river like the Orange."
Although the dams were full, and some even over full, the water levels were
subsiding, Du Plessis said.
Ryan Hoover
Africa Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
USA
Phone: (510) 848-1155 Fax: (510) 848-1008
www.irn.org
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