This Is What the Vaal Dam at 100% Looks Like

On Monday morning, at 5.30 am, the Vaal Dam in South Africa reached 100% capacity, according to the Department of Water and Sanitation. Dirk Grobler captured this drone footage of the dam, at its fullest in six years.

“This video shows the dam at capacity and compares clips from previous videos in the series. 30 October 2016 the Vaal Dam was at 26%, its lowest level since 2011, the last time when it was full,” he says.

Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has announced the lifting of water restrictions in Gauteng with immediate effect.

This follows the dramatic change in the water situation after torrential rains that flooded most parts of the country in the past 10 days.

The department monitors 211 dams. Of these, 13 are below 10%, with 33 between 10% and 40%. Of South Africa’s dams, 57 are above 100%.

However, the Minister said the decision to relax the ban in Gauteng did not mean an automatic countrywide moratorium on water restrictions as some regions are still reeling from the effects of the debilitating drought that started in South Africa two years ago.

“For instance, stringent restrictions would remain in place in Western Cape which is experiencing the worst drought conditions in its history,” said the Minister.

Today the Minister will be visiting the Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality in the Free State province where water challenges have arisen in the area of QwaQwa because of the rise in dam levels along the Integrated Vaal River System

Vaal Dam at 100%

Today at 05:30 the Vaal Dam was at 100% windy inflow 669.75m3/s #SaveWater pic.twitter.com/LEGfxV8ZPk

— Water&SanitationRSA (@DWS_RSA) February 27, 2017

UPDATE: Check out this joyous video of the Vaal Dam on Wednesday 1 March 2017