South Africa’s government remains resolute in working together with affected provinces, municipalities and the private sector to alleviate the impact of on-going drought in parts of the country, the department of water and sanitation (DWS) said on Wednesday.

It said while there had been some recovery in large parts of the country since late 2017 into 2018, the impact of the drought would take longer to turn around due to late rains and high temperatures which had led to high evaporation rates and very little recharge of the country’s water sources.

“These are but some of the impacts of climate change which are a reality,” the DWS said in a statement.

In the Eastern Cape province, the department said it had last week released water from the Wriggles Dam which was expected to take about two weeks to reach the Kei bridge.

It said boreholes drilled in the area had not yielded much water.

In Queenstown, dam levels continued to drop due to lack of rain and the Chris Hani district municipality had imposed water rationing.

“Whereas the responsibility for reticulation by law rests with local government, the DWS has also continued to support the affected municipalities by way of availing water tankers at a cost to the department,” the water and sanitation department said.

“The challenge of the drought can only be permanently resolved by the arrival of the much anticipated rains.”

(Source: African News Agency)