South Africa

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Nelson Mandela Bay water shortage becomes crisis as second-largest dam is close to running dry

Nelson Mandela Bay water shortage becomes crisis as second-largest dam is close to running dry
PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA – SEPTEMBER 11: Impofu dam, Nelson Mandela Bay, September 11, 2018 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Lulama Zenzile)

Nelson Mandela Bay metro is edging closer to being the first SA city to run out of water after the metro’s second biggest supply dam has fallen to levels that can no longer be accessed by intake pumps. The municipality announced over the weekend it will now have to divide the available water equally but was silent about more than 6,000 water leaks that have yet to be fixed.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has warned that it can no longer extract water from its second-largest dam as levels have fallen below the lowest intake point – leaving the municipality unable to supply 35 million litres of water to the city and the surrounding seaside towns of Jeffreys Bay, St Francis Bay and Humansdorp.

The Impofu Dam near Humansdorp is only 16% full, according to the latest dam levels issued by the Department of Environmental Affairs. In a late-night press release issued over the weekend, the municipality asked the public to reduce their consumption to an absolute minimum.

But, according to statistics kept by the municipality, there are about 6,000 water leaks that need attention with another 173 reported on Monday.

Due to the ongoing drought conditions (lower than the annual average rainfall) the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is currently experiencing difficulties supplying water at the Elandsjagt water treatment works as the Impofu Dam level has dropped to below the lowest intake point of the intake tower. This has resulted in no water being able to be extracted from this dam currently.

The current consumption is approximately 280 Ml/day and this will leave the system with an immediate deficit of approximately 35Ml/day,” municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said.

Several residents complained last week that their water tasted of soil and had a strange brown colour.

All the reservoirs within the NMBM are currently dropping and this has also caused water to be discoloured,” Mniki added. “Please note, the water remains safe.”

He said the municipality planned to improve its turnaround time to fix water leaks and pipe bursts and maximise the use of water treated by the Nooitgedacht works via transfer pump stations. In addition, the municipality will install barge pump stations to access “dead storage” in the dam.

The Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson for infrastructure in the metro, Masixole Zinto, said they have asked for an ongoing report about water leaks from the council’s standing committee on infrastructure but they have not received one for some time.

He added that a contract to provide free plumbing services to residents in RDP housing was stopped in June.

We have not seen a plan to deal with this,” he said. “Even though the Churchill Dam [another supply dam to the city] is relatively full, the infrastructure has not been maintained for a while. It is working at 60% of capacity. But at the rate that water is being used in the metro, we will quickly empty that dam too.”

He said the city should be using 240 megalitres a day but consumption is still at 280 megalitres per day.

It looks just like it is a free-for-all,” he added. “There is not a public information campaign to help people save water.”

Rudolph Germishuys, the representative of the Kouga Freshwater Angling Club, took pictures of the dam over the weekend.

We always fish at the dam. It looks terrible,” he said.

Water-shedding, with water only being available at certain times during the day, has been implemented in the Joe Gqabi Municipality with Burgersdorp, Ugie, Maclear, Mount Fletcher , while total water outages are experienced in Aliwal North, Middelburg, Adelaide and Bedford.

Tsomo, Gqogqorha, Emdeni, Mahlubini, Komkhulu, Myangula and Mmangobombu have not had running water for three months. MC

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