Water restrictions remain in place despite rains
Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane is urging South Africans to be responsible in their water usage, despite the recent rains.
The minister briefed the media earlier today.
Mokonyane says dam levels are up by 2.1 percent overall, but the drought has not been broken.
"As a water scarce country, we are not - in the foreseeable future - going to be out of the woods. We appreciate that there have been good rains that have had a slight impact on our water reserves and brought about some hope towards a recovery," says Mokonyane.
She urged communities to use water responsibly and adhere to water restrictions.
"We are still firmly in a drought and have not recovered significantly to relax the restrictions to water use that we have implemented in a number of our provinces," says Mokonyane.
Mokonyane warned that despite several efforts to harvest more and waste less water, the effect of the drought could last for another three years.