Residents face new water cuts
Nelson Mandela Bay residents should brace themselves for further water restrictions as the municipality drafts a new restriction notice, with dam levels having dropped to an alltime low of 20%.
While the municipality has not yet spelt out the details of the proposed new restrictions, water and sanitation director Barry Martin said yesterday the water tariffs would not be affected.
The current restrictions and tariffs were introduced by mayor Athol Trollip last month after overall dam levels dipped below 30%, placing the metro in a water-emergency situation.
With dam levels threatening to drop below 20% this month, moving the metro into a “water-disaster situation”, and no significant rainfall predicted any time soon, municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said the municipality was being forced to introduce new restrictions.
At his initial media briefing as the new mayor in August 2016, Trollip advised residents that water restrictions would be implemented within the next week.
At the time, the overall dam level average was 72%.
Individual figures for the five supply dams were: Kouga 66.93%, Churchill 61.86%, Impofu 83.72%, Loerie 29.15% and Groendal 78.78%.
The dams’ overall average is now at 20.33%, with Kouga at 7.61%, Churchill 17.11%, Impofu 32.15%, Groendal 42.7%, and Loerie – the smallest of the five – at 87.57%.
Mniki said the restrictions and tariffs had resulted in daily water usage dropping from as high as 340 megalitres a day little more than a year ago to an average of 265ML a day last month.
However, the Bay is yet to reach its elusive target of 250ML a day set in January last year.
Martin said while there was no set date for the implementation of the new restrictions, the urgency of the water situation required the draft to be passed as soon as possible.
“While we [were] declared a disaster zone a while ago, these new restrictions are to ensure that all our mechanisms are in place to deal with the drought disaster as best we can,” he said.
“Within the next week or two, the draft should be passed once I have completed all the paperwork.
“Thereafter, we will have a press briefing to relay the changes and updates of the new restrictions.
“I can confirm that the new water restrictions will not affect the current tariff structure
– tariffs are determined by the council. These restrictions are more to do with the ways in which we use and save water.”
The new restrictions come at a time when the highly publicised Cape Town drought is easing, with the city’s combined dam storage levels at 41.5% on Friday as a result of recent good rainfall, the highest it has been in months.
SA Weather Service regional manager Hugh van Niekerk has said previously that the Bay could still expect rain over the next four months, but that it would not be enough to end the drought.
The Herald reported in October that the municipality was pinning its hopes of solving the city’s water crisis on an extreme rainfall event expected to occur towards the end of this year.
But Van Niekerk said the extreme rainfall event was not guaranteed as it was only statistically based on the Bay’s rainfall history.
Mniki said additional boreholes would be drilled over the next three months, while available water from Nooitgedacht continued to be treated and pumped to the city.
Water wastage is also being curbed through repairs, with the employment of 13 additional plumbers.