Saturday 29 March 2014

Hardap Dam sluices opened

Heavy rains over the catchment area of the Fish River during the past two days have resulted in the
opening of the sluices of the Hardap Dam.
The level of the dam stood at 44% at 08h00 on 24 March, but the next morning it increased to 56%. At 15h00 that afternoon, NamWater decided to open the sluices of the dam when its level stood at 69,5% with some water still on its way via the Fish River. The water was released against 120 cubic metres per second and on Wednesday morning the dam's level stood at 74,7%. It is expected that the sluices would be closed again in the afternoon of Wednesday.
Since Monday, 24 March, 97 million cubic metres of water flowed into the dam, while 8,2 million cubic metres of water were released into the Fish River during the past two days. The total inflow of the Hardap Dam since December 2013 was 155 million cubic metres of water. The sluices of the dam were last opened on 29 March 2012.
To avoid any flooding at Mariental, a decision was taken earlier that the level of the dam should not be more than 70% and that the sluices be opened at that stage to release water at a slow pace.

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