The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is keeping three sluice gates open at the Vaal dam.

As rainfall resumed this week, the department is monitoring the dam’s water outflow requirements.

The DWS closed five sluice gates – four over the weekend and one on Monday – after initially opening eight last week.

Both the Vaal and Bloemhof dams are at their full water supply capacity of 101.86% and 104.77% respectively.

Water outflow at Bloemhof dam was kept at 1 002.3 mᵌ/s.

“Since the rainfall has resumed, the department will constantly conduct its flood routine analysis to actively monitor the inflow water levels at both Vaal and Bloemhof dams, and determine the action that needs to be taken with regards to the remaining opened sluice gates at Vaal dam,” the DWS said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sluice gates were opened as part of dam safety protocols, to control water releases from the dams when the water levels rise sharply and to prevent the water resource infrastructure from failing, as it may lead to a dam bursting and causing a disaster of unimaginable magnitude.

The department implements these necessary controlled water releases at the dams as part of dam safety precautions to safeguard the infrastructure and to protect human life.