HAWANE DAM OVERFLOWS

MBABANE – For the first in over a year, Hawane Dam is overflowing.

This follows the good rains that were received in many parts of the country. The last reading of the dam was conducted last week and placed its water levels at 79 per cent.
According to the Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC) Acting Public Affairs Manager Welcome Shabangu, the dam is now at 100 per cent.
“The dam started overflowing yesterday (Saturday),” said Shabangu.

This, Shabangu said, meant the dam was at its full capacity.
He stated that in spite of this, nothing much had changed in terms of water usage.
“The water crisis is not yet completely over, water rationing is still temporarily suspended though,” said Shabangu.

He advised the nation to continue using water sparingly and added that they would continue to monitor the situation and inform the public on the latest developments.
When the Times team visited Hawane to observe the dam, it was found to be 16.8 metres deep as indicated by the gauging equipment.

The dam reached zero per cent capacity last year when the country was faced with the El Nino-induced drought.
The SWSC stopped sourcing water from the dam to supply Mbabane and Ngwenya residents.
In a previous interview, Shabangu said even if Hawane Dam reaches 100 per cent in water levels, the SWSC would not yet source water from it to supply Mbabane and surrounding areas.

Shabangu clarified that SWSC did not source water from Hawane Dam but said they would occasionally open the valve at the dam to allow it to feed into the Mbuluzi River where a water catchment was put in place.
News of the overflowing Hawane Dam will certainly come as a relief to Mbabane residents who have been holding their breath, waiting to hear when SWSC would announce the much dreaded water rationing exercise.
However, since late last year, the rationing exercise has been suspended following good rains that were received countrywide.

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