The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality conducted a public water awareness campaign in the early hours of last week, encouraging residents to reduce their daily water consumption to help curb the water crisis that the city is currently facing.
The Executive Mayor, Councillor Eugene Johnson, and the acting portfolio head for water and sanitation, Councillor Nonhina Mswana, joined the water awareness ambassadors at various traffic intersections, to hand out material with water saving information.
“The campaign has now shifted from its critical situation, as all hands are on deck in fighting back day zero. However, I encourage residents of this metro to be very mindful on water consumption and continue to report leaks so that water is not wasted. We want to see things stabilising; if we work together as a team, we can do this,” said Johnson.
“I am confident that the campaign will yield positive results; the reception we received from motorists was highly positive this morning.
“A number of residents commented on how useful the zero-rated WhatsApp number is and how impressed they are to see that the municipality is hard at work at making sure that the city has water,” commented Maswana.
The coordinator of the Joint Operations Centre on Water Crisis, Luvuyo Bangazi, said, “The initiative is aimed at interacting with citizens of the metro, raising awareness and sharing water-saving tips.
“The effort is designed to get the public engaged and working together with all role players to drive water consumption down.”
At the moment, the aim and focus is to raise awareness within communities on how to use water sparingly, and sticking to the 50 litres consumption per person per day limit.
The material handed out demonstrates how achievable it is to keep to 50 litres per day per person.
Earlier the metro said current dam levels have remained stable at 14.7%, with usable water at 2.4%.
- Residents looking for implementing tips more easily can visit www.baywatersavers.co.za, alternatively WhatsApp “water” to 064 744 7721 for an interactive experience.
Both the website and the WhatsApp number are zero rated. Reporting leaks can still be done by calling 0800 20 50 50 or email waterleaks@mandelametro.gov.za.
Water users are urged to only use 50 litres per person per day, or below 9kl per household.
To join the conversation, water users are encouraged to join the Bay Water Savers Facebook Community on Facebook.
