Farmers celebrate rainfall – but the drought’s not over
By Sue Maclennan
With close to 60mm measured in and around Makhanda during the past three days, residents have asked whether the drought (and with it, some of the town’s water problems) may be over. Sunday’s downpour added to the rains of recent weeks made a difference – but the town is still short of water.
A resident in the Oatlands area measured 49mm in 35 minutes during a torrential downpour on Sunday 5 December and another 7.5mm Monday, bringing the total not far from 60mm.
DispatchLive reported on disaster in and around the city, with CBD businesses flooded as masses of litter washing down the town’s streams and gutters plugged stormwater drains and toppled trees blocked roads. Undertaker Ernie Cassels came to the rescue as the flood threatened to destroy homes at Sun City informal settlement.
The dams used to supply Makhanda west – Settlers and the smaller Howisonspoort dams – have been depleted by drought. They rely on rain falling in their catchment to fill via two rivers – the Kariega and the Palmiet rivers.
SmilingSouth asked farmers in those catchment areas what effect the recent rains have had on the water table.
“Fantastic rain!” said Richard Moss, of Mosslands west of Makhanda. “We had. 60mm in less than 60 minutes and the Kariega river is flowing for the first time since March 2015… which is beautiful.”
He said optimistically, “I think we can say the drought has broken, although we need a little more to fill the dams on the Kariega.”
Dale Howarth, Director of Pumba Game Reserve between Makhanda and Alicedale, was positive but more cautious.
“We got some lovely rain,” said Howarth. “Got 102mm for November and 90mm over the weekend, which got the water running. All our small stock dams are full and our two big lakes about half. The grass and veld is starting to recover nicely.”
But Howarth, who is the chairperson of the Central Albany Agricultural Association, said while good progress had been made, it was “a little bit early to say the drought is broken”.
The head of Rhodes University’s Geography Department Ian Meiklejohn also said it was too early to tell.
“We still have not reached average for this year,” Meiklejohn said.
“Also, the dams in the catchment area of Settlers’ Dam are not filling up. The rains were gorgeous, but limited (isolated). We need consistent rains for a while, before we can say the drought has been broken.
“In the meantime, I will simply celebrate the 40mm I measured in my garden for yesterday [Sunday] and 14mm for the day before.”
Dam levels on 7 December 2021, sourced by Makana Communication Officer Anele Mjekula, were Howieson’s Poort 75% and Settlers below 5%.
SmilingSouth 
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