South Africa is preparing to release water from a mountain reservoir to top up plunging levels at the main facility that supplies the country\u2019s commercial hub of Gauteng and three of its biggest cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Water will be released from the Sterkfontein Dam when the Vaal Dam level falls to 18% of capacity from its current 28% in line with standard procedure, the Department of Water and Sanitation said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The level at the Vaal Dam, which lies south of Johannesburg, has been falling due to evaporation from successive heat waves, poor early summer rains after a drought last season and the shut off of supply from neighbouring Lesotho because of a six-month maintenance project that\u2019s due to end by April.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 320 square kilometre reservoir is currently falling by as much as 2 percentage points a week. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plunging water levels are another headache for the interconnected cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Ekurhuleni \u2014 in which a total of about 12 million people live \u2014 which have been hit by recurrent water shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poor maintenance has led to the cities losing more than 40% of the water they are supplied with to leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year water was cut off to a large swathe of Johannesburg for more than a week when a pump station broke down after being struck by lightning and on Nov. 27 residents in the western Johannesburg suburb of Westbury\u00a0clashed with police\u00a0over a water outage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johannesburg Water, the city\u2019s water utility, said last week it’s\u00a0considering tighter usage restrictions\u00a0as it battles to maintain infrastructure and cope with increased demand. Already it\u2019s reducing\u00a0water pressure\u00a0from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. on some days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n