Paarl Pool Owners Urged to Rule Out Leaks Before Summer as Dam Storage Trails Last Year

Paarl pool owners heading into summer are being urged to rule out leaks and to check Drakenstein Municipality's rules on topping up pools, with the region's dam storage well below where it stood a year ago. The Paarl Plumbers, a plumbing business based in Paarl, has set out what the municipal rules say and how owners can test for a leak themselves in 24 hours.

According to City of Cape Town figures, the major dams supplying the region held 76.1% of their capacity on 28 September 2026, compared with 91.9% in the same week of 2025. Wemmershoek Dam, which supplies about 90% of Paarl's water, stood at 88.5%. The Berg River Dam was at 94.0%, down from 99.8% a year earlier.

What Drakenstein's rules say about pools

• Covers and top-ups. Under the Level 0 water restrictions that have applied in Drakenstein since 1 November 2020, the municipality's notice allows a swimming pool to be filled or topped up with municipal drinking water only if it is fitted with a non-permeable solid pool cover.
• Automatic top-up valves. The Drakenstein Water and Sanitation Services By-law of 2023 states that automatic top-up systems using a float valve fed from a potable water source are not allowed for swimming pools and garden ponds (section 50(6)). The older Level 0 notice on the municipality's website says automatic pool top-up systems are allowed, so owners who rely on an auto-fill should confirm with the municipality which rule it applies.
• Backwash water. The by-law requires pool backwash water to go into the sewer wherever a sewer network exists, not into the street or the stormwater system (section 53(3)).

Why an auto-fill hides a leak

An automatic top-up valve holds the water level steady, so a leaking pool never shows a drop. The only sign is the water account, and because Drakenstein bills households on an inclining block tariff, leaked water is charged at the household's highest rate. Under the municipality's 2026/2027 tariffs, domestic consumption between 15 kL and 30 kL a month costs R29.12 per kilolitre including VAT, rising to R40.65 per kilolitre between 30 kL and 45 kL.

As an example, an 8 m by 4 m pool losing 1 cm a day to a leak loses about 320 litres a day, or 9.6 kL over 30 days. For a household already using 15 kL a month, that adds about R280 to the monthly water consumption charge.

Leaks in buried pool pipework carry a second cost. Water escaping underground can wash soil out from under paving and pool surrounds, and the settling that follows is usually more expensive to repair than the pipe itself.

The 24-hour bucket test

Hot, dry and windy summer days increase evaporation, so a falling water level in midsummer is not automatically a leak. The bucket test separates the two, because the bucket and the pool are exposed to exactly the same sun and wind:

1. Switch off any automatic top-up valve.
2. Fill a bucket with pool water and stand it on a pool step, so the water inside the bucket is level with the pool.
3. Mark the water level inside the bucket and the pool level on the outside.
4. After 24 hours, compare the two. If the pool has dropped noticeably more than the bucket, the difference is a leak.

Running the test twice, once with the pump on its normal cycle and once with it off, helps narrow down where the water is going. A loss that gets worse while the pump runs points to the return side of the system, which is only under pressure when the pump is on. A steady loss either way points to the shell, the skimmer, the main drain or the suction line.

Leak relief on the water account

Drakenstein's credit control policy holds property owners responsible for all water that passes through their meter, but it allows the municipality, at its discretion, to grant relief for water lost to a leak on the property's side of the meter. Owners need an invoice and proof of payment for the repair, and the policy allows one leak correction per financial year, which runs from July to June.

About The Paarl Plumbers

The Paarl Plumbers is a plumbing business based in Esterville, Paarl, providing pool leak detection in Paarl, leak detection, geyser repairs and installations, blocked drain clearing and general plumbing across Paarl and the Cape Winelands, including Val de Vie and Pearl Valley. More information is available at plumberpaarl.co.za.