GQEBERHA – The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality says it hopes to restore running water to Tiryville and surrounding areas by this weekend as residents continue to raise concerns over prolonged water shortages and electricity outages following the devastating floods that damaged large parts of the metro earlier this month.
Angry Kariega residents travelled to City Hall in Gqeberha on Tuesday, May 27, to demonstrate against ongoing service delivery issues, including inconsistent water supply and repeated power outages in affected communities.
The protest follows calls from residents for water supply to be restored to affected areas, with some communities allegedly enduring outages for more than 72 days.
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In a social media post, Democratic Alliance councillor Retief Odendaal said the party had decided to lodge a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission against Executive Mayor Babalwa Lobishe and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, alleging that residents’ constitutional right to access sufficient water was being violated.
“Today, enough is enough.
“Access to water is not a luxury; it is a constitutional right,” the post stated.
The post further alleged that residents in Lapland, Kariega, had been without water for 150 days.
Odendaal added that frequent unplanned power outages had worsened the water crisis by affecting the operation of pump stations and water treatment plants.
“These outages not only affect the municipality’s ability to provide water, but also residents’ constitutional right to freedom and security of person,” he said.
The Express reached out to the municipality’s Communications Department with questions regarding the complaint lodged with the South African Human Rights Commission, and the municipality’s action plan to address the issues raised.
Communications Director Sithembiso Soyaya responded with two statements related to the matter.
According to one statement, the municipality’s Water Services Subdirectorate has implemented a three-pronged intervention aimed at restoring normal water distribution before the end of the week.
The statement explained that the municipality is increasing water supply from the Nooitgedacht Water Scheme while simultaneously operating the Kabah Water Treatment Plant at maximum capacity to improve water availability in affected areas.
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“In addition, technical modifications have been implemented at the Kabah Water Treatment Plant to enhance its treatment and pumping capacity, thereby increasing Kamesh reservoir levels and improving water distribution across the network,” the statement read.
The municipality further stated that the restoration of water supply in several affected areas had reduced pressure on emergency water relief measures.
“As a result, the municipality is now able to deploy additional water tankers to Tiryville and surrounding communities to mitigate the impact of the outages while the system continues to recover,” the statement said.
Lobishe added that the municipality hopes to restore running water to Tiryville and surrounding areas by this weekend.
She noted that the system had recovered to above 80%.
Regarding the ongoing power outages in the metro, a separate statement said the municipality and Lobishe had convened an urgent intervention meeting on Tuesday with senior leadership from the Electricity and Energy Directorate to activate an intensified recovery and rapid response plan.
The statement said the intervention followed growing concern over prolonged outages affecting communities including New Brighton, KwaZakhele, Veeplaas, Soweto-on-Sea, parts of Bethelsdorp, and Motherwell.
“We have therefore directed the immediate establishment of a war room and rapid response intervention model to accelerate restoration efforts across all affected communities,” Lobishe said in the statement.
The municipality said the intervention measures include the deployment of additional contractors to support municipal technical teams, daily operational monitoring through the Office of the City Manager, prioritised procurement processes for damaged infrastructure materials, and strengthened coordination between municipal departments.
Additional measures include increased monitoring of electricity infrastructure to combat cable theft and vandalism, accelerated deployment planning for specialised vehicles and cable fault detection equipment, and daily progress updates to affected communities through ward councillors and official municipal communication platforms.
“The Executive Mayor further instructed that ward-based recovery plans and progress reports be submitted regularly to her office to ensure improved accountability, turnaround monitoring and community visibility,” the statement said.
“In addition to the institutional response, Executive Mayor Lobishe will conduct oversight visits to affected communities to assess restoration progress on the ground and engage directly with residents impacted by the outages,” the statement concluded.
