THE MINISTER OF WATER AND SANITATION
(a) Table below gives a breakdown summary of total number of dams in the country as well as ownership status as per dam register published on 31 December 2017.
Ownership sector |
Total number of registered dams |
State |
854 |
Department of Water & Sanitation |
322 |
Municipalities |
333 |
Other state departments |
76 |
Water Boards |
123 |
Private sector |
4 657 |
Mines, industries, business |
335 |
Agriculture |
4 322 |
Total |
5 511 |
(b) Dam location per Province is given in the table below. A detailed location of each dam is supplemented in Columns G to O of the dam register, submitted as Annexure A.
Province |
Total number of registered dams |
North West |
92 |
Gauteng |
187 |
Limpopo |
458 |
Kwazulu-Natal |
1090 |
Eastern Cape |
789 |
Western Cape |
1572 |
Northern Cape |
130 |
Mpumalanga |
675 |
Free State |
518 |
Total |
5 511 |
(c) The table below gives a cumulative summary of dam capacities per ownership sector. From the table it can be seen that state dams store 94% of all available water resources in the country, whereas private sector store the remaining 6%.
Ownership sector |
Total capacity in (m3 x 109) |
% total capacity |
State |
31.35 |
94 |
Department of Water & Sanitation |
29.35 |
88.0 |
Municipalities |
1.0 |
3.0 |
Other state departments |
0.2 |
0.6 |
Water Boards |
0.8 |
2.4 |
Private sector |
2.06 |
6.0 |
Mines, industries, business |
0.5 |
1.5 |
Agriculture |
1.56 |
4.5 |
Total |
33.41 |
100 |
(d) Dam register is submitted as an Annexure A of this reply, for all practical purpose, the date in which the dam became operational is taken as the date of completion which is given in Column R of the dam register.
(e) Dam levels are submitted as Annexure B of the reply. It should be noted that only dam levels owned by my Department are submitted. My Department is unfortunately not in a position to furnish levels of privately owned dams.
(f) Owner's details are given in Column AD of the register