Question NW218 to the Minister of Water and Sanitation

Reply:

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