The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is counting the days before half of the metro will run dry, with approximately 31 days left until that happens.
According to the NMBM, if no significant rain falls in the catchment areas in the coming days, the metro will be faced with an unprecedented water disaster.
The areas that will be affected by the water outage constitute 40% of the city and include the western suburbs, Kariega, Kwa-Nobuhle and peri-urban areas such as Greenbushes and St Albans, where one of the Eastern Cape’s biggest correctional facilities is situated.
In terms of the water supply and recent usage statistics examined on May 4, it was calculated that 38 days were left until the dams run dry for half of the metro, bringing the estimated days until day zero arrives for these areas, to 31 today.
Following on its ongoing water awareness campaign over the past three years, the city started with aggressive communication and stakeholder information sessions last week to inform the Nelson Mandela Bay community about the imminent disaster.
Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor, Eugene Johnson, recently hosted an information session for councillors as well as a public information session, where councillors and the public were taken through the details of the current crisis, the magnitude thereof and plans in place to mitigate its impact.
“From now on, the situation will only get worse if we receive no significant rainfall.
“We have been talking about this for years, now day zero has finally arrived,” Johnson said. Senior officials from the NMBM water services directorate prepared tailor-made presentations that were delivered during the sessions.
During his presentation, the metro’s water and sanitation director, Barry Martin, said that the last time the dams were full was in 2015 and that the last drought in Nelson Mandela Bay lasted 10 years.
“We are now in year seven. The next four to six weeks will be critical for the metro.
“This is the worst situation that we have ever been in regarding dam storage,” Martin said.
The critical element of these sessions is a call to action by the municipality to the community and stakeholders to drastically reduce their consumption to the lowest possible percentage.
The mayor also recently hosted an information session with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
The session with the NMB Business Chamber focused on the impact that the water disaster will have on the local business sector and options available to the business sector to mitigate the effects.
It was also an interactive engagement wherein the Business Chamber contributed some of their suggested solutions in mitigating the disaster.
At the time of going to print, the metro’s combined dam levels stood at 12,81% with Kouga Dam at 12.94%, Churchill at 13.31%, Impofu Dam at 10.64% and Groendal and Loerie Dams at 22.44% and 40.09% respectively.
