Hi, I’m Walter.

I built ourdams.co.za because I wanted one simple place to understand Cape Town’s water risk.

Short version: This is a plain-English public tool for dam levels, history, and what could happen next.

My story

During the Day Zero years, I kept checking numbers from different places. PDFs. News snippets. WhatsApp forwards. It was messy.

I could usually find the data. But I still could not answer one simple question quickly: Are we okay for this time of year?

So I started collecting weekly dam numbers and building my own simple views. One thing led to another. This site was born.

I wanted something my family could read in 10 seconds. Not just engineers. Not just policy people. Everyone.

I also wanted less drama and more context. A low number alone is scary. A low number with history and seasonality is useful.

Section	What it answers
Current levels	Where are the dams right now?
History	How does this compare to past years like 2017?
Scenarios	What could happen if winter is dry, average, or strong?
Methodology	What is measured data vs modeled estimates?

If I model it, I label it. If I infer it, I explain it.

This is an independent public project. It is not an official government forecast.

I try to keep the data current and the assumptions transparent. If you spot something off, please tell me and I’ll fix it.

Thanks for reading.
Walter