Bay’s lost water could almost fill two supply dams
Enough water to almost fill up both the Churchill and Groendal dams was lost in Nelson Mandela Bay during the 2020/2021 financial year.
This arguably could have pushed day zero back by months as the city recorded that 43,349 megalitres (ML) of water, worth R214m, went down the drain.
This accounts for about 40% of all water used in the Bay during the period under review.
The figures are contained in the 2020/2021 annual report which was presented to the municipal public accounts committee (Mpac) yesterday.
The Bay uses an average of about 270ML of water a day, meaning the water losses equate to 154 days’ worth of supply.
In the city manager’s overview, Noxolo Nqwazi said water bulk purchases were lower than anticipated.
“The drought-related restrictions on water usage assisted in this regard.
“However, water losses decreased from 43% in the 2019/2020 financial year to 40% in the 2020/2021 financial year.
Of the 40%, 11% was for commercial losses and 34% for physical losses — all largely in the form of leaks, unauthorised consumption and technical losses.
While there was a decline from the previous year, Nqwazi said the water loss was still at a high level.
The issue was also flagged in the 2020/2021 auditorgeneral’s report, with Tsakani Maluleke saying some of the water that had been lost was due to the municipality’s own “administrative inaccuracies associated with customer metering”.
The issue is expected to be a subject of heated debate as the committee unpacks the annual report.
The Churchill Dam’s capacity when full is 35,240ML, while Groendal’s is 11,640ML.
The committee adopted a schedule of meetings to unpack the annual report and also come up with an action plan.
Nqwazi said that both water and electricity losses posed a risk to the municipality’s financial position.
“Taking into account the persistent annual increases in respect of the percentages of electricity and water losses, the escalating outstanding debtors and the reduced revenue streams against planned budgets, the municipality should urgently implement strategies
to address and mitigate the high risk it is exposed to.”
She said this was crucial to prevent a deficit outcome for the 2021/2022 financial year.
In the 2019/2020 annual report, it showed that 46,741ML (43%) had been lost, amounting to R180m.
“Various water demand management interventions are being implemented to curb water losses,” she said.
At the meeting, councillors debated the need for a contract management plan.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom proposed that an alert be issued nine months before a contract expired in the municipality.
“We have seen what happens when a contract comes to an end.
“It happened with grass cutting when a contract lapsed and the grass grew knee-high.
“Directors must be allowed to plan timeously.
“We need someone to monitor these contracts.
“We need to do something about contract management,” Grootboom said.
Committee chair Khanya Ngqisha said officials needed to be aware of when contracts expired and also when vacancies needed to be filled.
“A director by nature is supposed to forecast, that is why they are paid so much.
“Ideally, there should not be a situation where we reach a stage where vacancies are not filled.
“Even with contracts, officials [they] are supposed to know well in advance otherwise we will have deviations done outside normal processes.
“The end result is that the high level of vacancies and contracts not being dealt with will result in service delivery failure,” Ngqisha said.