FROSTY, smog but not enough rain.
This is the preliminary winter weather forecast for the once drought-stricken Western Cape.
The South African Weather Services warned of a possible dry winter with less rainfall, but Agri Western Cape said it was too early to be concerned.
“Little to no rain in the fall, with rainfall only in early winter, has been more or less the trend over the past few years,” said chief executive Jannie Strydom.
Although he admitted “it would have been much easier with an earlier rainfall as planting conditions are more difficult”.
Furthermore, he said, pastures germinate much later, causing producers to feed longer.
MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Anton Bredell recently said predictions for the coming months were for less than normal rainfall in the south-western parts of the province which normally receives significant rainfall during early winter.
The level of the Theewaterskloof Dam, the largest storage dam in the Western Cape, dropped to 69% on Monday, down from 70.2% a week earlier.
A year ago the dam level stood at 73%.
The province's average dam levels have also dropped from 56.4% to 55.4% in the past week compared to 49.4% in the corresponding period last year.
Strydom told Weekend Argus that it was too early for concern.
“The dam levels look normal at the moment,” he said. “If the rainfall forecast for the winter comes true, the dam levels may decrease but it is too early to worry.”
The province has suffered severe dry weather conditions that has crippled farming in the Karoo and in 2018 the taps were close to running dry in Cape Town. This was after three consecutive years of minimal rainfall.
The City was forced to to implement a contingency plan where residents used water sparingly or face fines. They were only allowed to take a two-minute shower. A ban was placed on outdoor and non-essential water use and grey water was used to flush toilets. Eventually, water consumption was limited to 50 litres per person.
The impact on agriculture and livestock industry was so severe that farmers in the province said they bore the brunt of the drought and continued to feel its effects.
“The drought over the past five years caused us to lose 30% of our ewes,” said Jan Vos, a sheep farmer from Merweville near Beaufort West.
“This in itself has had a major impact on the economic viability of our farm.”
Vos said due to the drought, he had “no other choice” but to cut his workforce by half.
The Western Cape MEC for Agriculture, Ivan Meyer, told Weekend Argus it was “very unlikely” that the reservoirs would be fully depleted again.
“The province is in a stronger position to cope with future droughts,” he said.
“Average rainfall has since returned in wetter regions, but the impact on agriculture will be felt for several years. In some parts of the arid and semi-arid Karoo and West Coast, the drought persists even though some rainfall this year has brought relief.
“We have just come out of a drought, Covid-19 is still with us, the inefficiencies at the ports need to be sorted and the Russia/Ukraine war is disrupting international supply chain logistics.
“Adverse weather conditions will therefore be an added burden to be managed by the industry.”
Meyer, however, warns that multi-year severe droughts may become part of the future that farmers must be prepared for.
He said his department had a roadmap to mitigate these risks. The SmartAgri plan seeks to ensure that the agricultural sector builds resilience in the face of challenges posed by climate change.