A NUMBER of dams in Namibia are spilling over as heavy rains continue around the country.
The Swakoppoort Dam, which has a storage capacity of 63,5 million cubic metres, was yesterday filled to capacity after receiving an inflow of 5,9 million cubic metres of water over the past week.
Swakoppoort is the largest of the three dams supplying Windhoek.
An update on changes in dam levels since Monday provided by the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) yesterday indicated that Swakoppoort’s valves were opened yesterday morning to allow some water to flow out.
The two other dams supplying water to the central regions – the Omatako and Von Bach dams – also recorded good inflows and reached more than 90% of their capacity each.
NamWater’s figures indicated that the Omatako Dam was 90,2% of its storage capacity yesterday morning, having received 1,5 million cubic metres of water in 24 hours.
Von Bach was filled to 91,2% of its capacity of 47,2 million cubic metres.
In the south, the Neckertal Dam also experienced good inflows as rain in its catchment area persisted, with 62,9 million cubic metres flowing into the dam over the past week.
Neckartal, the country’s biggest dam, with a full capacity of 857 million cubic metres, started to spill over last Tuesday and currently holds 859,8 million cubic metres and was still overflowing yesterday.
NamWater recorded that some 1,1 million cubic metres of water flowed into the dam between Monday and yesterday morning.
The Hardap Dam was 71,3% of capacity of 294,6 million cubic metres on Monday. NamWater opened the dam’s sluices on Monday morning, and by yesterday the dam’s contents came down to 69,2% of capacity.
Over the past week, the dam had an inflow of 4,5 million cubic metres of water.
The Naute Dam, with a capacity of 83,6 million cubic metres, this week recorded a volume of 81,4 cubic metres, bringing it to 97,4% of its full capacity.
Below are the dams’ present levels as reported by NamWater, with levels a year ago in brackets:
Neckartal 100,5% (no report)
Hardap 69,2% (6,1%)
Naute 97,4% (75,9%)
Swakoppoort 100% (5,2%)
Von Bach 91,2% (38,2%)
Omatako 90,2% (20,7%)
Oanob 98,7% (37,2%)
Otjivero Main 53,5% (6,7%)
Otjivero Silt 25,2% (2,2%)
Tilda Viljoen 84,1% (31,4%)
Daan Viljoen 92,2% (55,7%)
Friedenau 100,9% (20,4%)
Bondels 54,1% (empty)
Olushandja 17,3% (25,4%).
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