NELSON Mandela Bay Municipality infrastructure and engineering portfolio head, Councillor Mongameli Bobani, has called on residents to use water sparingly as Day Zero has hit the metro.
This comes after a number of residents and businesses experienced water outages last week due to the high water demand which cannot be matched as the metro is still faced with a drought disaster.
Addressing members of the media and residents on Friday, September 4, Bobani, who is a member of the mayoral committee, said, “We are experiencing water outages especially in the western suburbs, northern areas and Uitenhage.
“As the city, we can tell you that we are on Day Zero, because we are using more water than we actually have in our dams.
“Currently our consumption of water is 290 million litres per day while we are supposed to use 268 million litres a day or less.”
Bobani further said, “We would like to apologise to the residents for the inconvenience caused, but this crisis is beyond our control. The rain is not falling enough, making our dams drier every day.”
Over the weekend of the August 26 to 27, the northern areas experienced water outages and a concerted effort was made to re-establish water to the areas.
However, the action was compounded by some pipe and mechanical or electrical complications and insufficient water was pumped from Nooitgedagt, which resulted in the problem.
Bobani urged residents to use the remaining water sparingly and pray for rainfall, as the situation was dire.
As part of the long term solutions, Bobani said the metro had fixed 15 700 water leaks, saving the city millions of litres.
“We have a number of projects currently underway to mitigate our water supply and this includes the Coegakop Water Treatment Works.”
Residents are urged to report water leaks on 0800 20 5050 or at waterleaks@mandelametro.gov.za and all water users are requested to use water sparingly and limit usage to 50 litres per day per person or less.
NMBM senior director: water and sanitation, Barry Martin, said, “Residents should not stockpile water, as this puts an additional strain on the water supply system.”
