Recent rainfall across South Africa has not made enough impact on the drought gripping the country and water restrictions will continue, says the Department of Water and Sanitation.

The department said here Wednesday that the national storage at dams had shown only a slight increase of 0.8 percentage point from 54.2 per cent of capacity last week to 55 per cent this week.

At this time last year, the national storage was at 55.4 per cent.This is a clear sign that the recent rains did not make that much of an impact on our dams and the Department of Water and Sanitation would like to caution that the drought is still upon us, it added in a statement.

The department called on South Africans to adhere to water restrictions imposed by their respective municipalities and to continue using water sparingly.

Meanwhile, forecasters predict that above-average rainfall can be expected up to March 2017. The South African Weather Service said this week that most parts of the country would receive above average rainfall for the remainder of the Southern hemisphere summer, as rain returned to parts of the country this week following a few weeks of dry and hot conditions.

While the department commends some water users who have been selfless and have been true water ambassadors, sadly, this cannot be said about all of our residents and our water usage has been consistently above the target.

The department said it was encouraged by those municipalities which continued to take action against those who used water carelessly.

The department is constantly monitoring the situation and municipalities are implementing additional measures including restrictions and tariff increases where necessary, it said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK