By Lebone Rodah Mosima
Water hyacinth coverage on Hartbeespoort Dam has been contained to 9.77% of the reservoir’s surface area, despite heavy rains and nutrient-rich inflows that accelerated growth this season.
Magalies Water and the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) said on Thursday that this was significant progress in a nearly three-year effort to restore one of South Africa’s most troubled dams.
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Recurring algal blooms, sewage-fed nutrient loading and invasive water plants have long undermined water quality, recreation and ecosystem health in the popular dam.
Magalies Water was appointed by DWS in April 2023 as the implementing agent for water resource planning and management in the upper Crocodile West River Catchment and Hartbeespoort Dam.
Its turnaround strategy centred on 10 objectives: managing alien invasive species, tracking pollution, improving water quality monitoring, remediating hyacinth and algae, revamping inlet controls,
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