Mayor’s plea: Please do your bit to save water

Dear Nelson Mandela Bay residents: It is no secret that Nelson Mandela Bay remains in the grip of one of the longest and most severe droughts on record. As a result, our water reserves have been significantly impacted, with storage capacity at crisis levels.

The current challenges that we are facing will pale in comparison, should Nelson Mandela Bay run out of water.

The long-term drought mitigation and water augmentation schemes, specifically that of the Nooitgedacht low level scheme, which provides water from the Gariep Dam, have been lifelines for the city.

We now receive more than 60% of our daily water needs through the Nooitgedacht scheme.

Even with the augmentation of our water resources, the total capacity of our main storage dams has dropped to an alarmingly low 17%.

Even more concerning is that roughly 5% of this capacity is considered dead storage capacity — in other words, we will be unable to extract it.

This puts the true dam levels closer to 12%.

If the dams run dry, we still have water available from the Nooitgedacht scheme. This water can be stretched to sustain the metro, but certain areas will certainly experience extended water outages, and water-shedding might need to be implemented.

This situation must be prevented at all costs, which is why it is so crucial that we all save water where we can.

We are acutely aware of the poor state of our bulk water infrastructure, and we are prioritising the repair and maintenance thereof. This is no small task, as resources are limited, but we understand exactly how critical it is that we address these issues.

We appreciate residents reporting leaks to us and we are doing everything in our power to respond timeously to these reports.

Due to the massive backlogs we have found, we are prioritising leaks based on the volume of water being lost.

This sometimes means that smaller leaks move backwards in the queue, but it does not mean we do not care about water losses.

Every drop counts and we encourage all our residents to keep on reporting leaks to our call centre on 0800-20-50-50.

Please also report any vandalism of water infrastructure immediately. Any deliberate damage to our city’s water infrastructure, through vandalism or theft, will be met with the full might of the law.

The municipality is also rolling out several other water-saving measures, including the installation of pressure reduction valves on main supply lines, additional water meters on bulk supply lines to better monitor for leaks, and repairing or replacing faulty water meters and putting in flow restrictors on high water users.

The truth is that it is going to take the city years to repair our infrastructure and reduce our water losses. Years that we currently do not have.

Our water consumption is currently sitting at 300 megalitres a day.

We need to reduce this to at least 250ML a day, if we are to make any impact on the rate at which our dams are depleting.

It is for this reason that we are also asking residents to please play your part in reducing your consumption.

Please consider implementing the following watersaving tips:

● Water your garden with grey water;

● Refrain from washing your vehicles or windows with municipal water;

● Refrain from utilising any municipal water for building purposes;

● Under no circumstances fill your swimming pool with municipal water;

● Under no circumstances exceed the monthly usage of 15kl per household.

I want to thank every resident who has already been doing what they can to save water.

Please share your water savvy tips with others.

I give you my solemn promise the municipality will continue to do everything in its power to ensure water security in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Together we can overcome this drought and move Nelson Mandela Bay forward again. Nqaba Bhanga, executive mayor, Nelson Mandela Bay