Great for tourists, perhaps, but ominous for locals who are suffering their worst drought in more than a century. The once-lush region was declared a disaster area earlier this month, qualifying it for R53-million in emergency funding from the national Treasury.

But Eden District disaster manager Gerhard Otto said the money was a fraction of what was needed to pay for desalination, boreholes, diversion pipelines and other measures.

"In George alone, the costing of the projects is R189-million," Otto said. "It sounds like a lot, but if you consider what would happen if we had to run dry ... it's not.

''We can't get to a stage in George where I'm going to say, 'Listen, the dam's empty.' There's 190 000 people living in George."

The dam supplying George is 24.2% full, and that figure is dropping by about one percentage point a week.

So far this year, the region has had 306mm of rain, about 42% the normal average.

University of Cape Town climate expert Bruce Hewitson said the drought could not be directly attributed to climate change, but was "really unusual". "They're in for a challenging summer," he said. "Overall, the outlook's not greatly positive for the next five to six months."

Otto, who is more accustomed to dealing with flooding than drought, said: "You don't expect the Garden Route to run out of drinking water. No one plans for a one-in-132-year drought."

He said Christmas holidaymakers needed to be aware of the dire water shortage. "The visitors are welcome, but please, shower with a friend." 

By Anton Ferreira

This article was published in the Sunday Times on 22 November 2009

                   

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