Ten sluice gates at the Vaal dam remain open on Tuesday, with outflows of 1 771 metres a second (m³/s), while water releases at Bloemhof dam are maintained at 3 600 m³/s.

According to Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Wisane Mavasa, the water levels of the Vaal dam stood at 119.18%, with inflows declining to 1 338.80 m³/s, from the 1 587.34 m³/s recorded on Monday.

The water levels of the Bloemhof dam stood at 117.19%.

On Monday, the DWS increased the water releases at the dam from 3 400 m³/s to 3 600 m³/s to manage the inflows coming into the dam from upper catchments.

These controlled releases are activated through seven radial gates, six opened at 6 m and one at 5 m.

A previous statement noted that, besides the controlled water releases from the Vaal dam, six tributaries – Klip, Rietspruit and Suikerbosrand rivers above the Barrage dam, and Renoster, Mooi and Vals rivers – upstream of the Bloemhof dam in the Middle Vaal Catchment, are contributing to higher inflows into the dam necessitating higher releases.

However, the DWS on Tuesday assured that both dams had started showing some stability since Monday.

Meanwhile, one sluice gate remains open at Grootdraai dam, which has a recorded water level of 106.09%.

In the Orange river, the Vanderkloof dam has a water level of 108%, while Gariep dam recorded a water level of 111%.

The DWS noted that these two dams currently had uncontrolled overflows and were spilling.