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Cape Town has experienced downpours over the last few weeks, and images released by NASA has shown how Theewaterskloof Dam levels have increased. Water level readings from 16 July show indicate a 1.8% growth since last week – meaning that dams now sit at 55.1% full compared to last week’s 53.3%.

At the same time last year, dam levels were at an all time low of 26.0%. Theewaterskloof Dam, which just months ago held a water capacity of only 10%, has now filled up to 40.7%. This dam was used internationally to illustrate just how dire the Cape Town water crisis was. NASA On Wednesday released two images to show improvement at Theewaterskloof Dam since the start of the rainy season.

The animation makes use of Landsat (the Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellites) imagery, and shows the condition of the reservoir at two month intervals between 2015 and 2018.

 

The Theewaterskloof dam was nearly empty when this image was taken on 22 July 2017 (Source: Joshua Stevens/NASA)

 

A satellite view of the Theewaterskloof dam less than a year after the above image was taken (Source: Joshua Stevens/NASA)

 

Picture: Twitter

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Lucinda is a hard news writer who occasionally dabbles in lifestyle writing, and recent journalism graduate. She is a proud intersectional feminist, and is passionate about actively creating a world which is free of discrimination and inequality.