THE Nelson Mandela Bay Metro has recently been declared a drought disaster area, due to the drop in dam levels over the past few months.
This comes after Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Mongameli Bobani, finally signed a statement indicating that the metro was facing a drought, as the average dam levels recently dropped to lower than 40% of combined capacity.
The signing of this official statement means that the metro is classified as a disaster area, and will now be able to apply for grants from the National Treasury.
However, it is alleged that the paperwork to declare the metro a disaster area, had been sitting on Bobani’s desk for weeks before he finally signed the letter.
According to the mayoral spokesperson, George Geleba, the mayor was consulting with the political leadership and legal division on some areas of the drought declaration letter.
“The declaration will allow the municipality to mobilise technical and financial resources from national, provincial and local government,” Geleba said.
With the drought declaration in place, punitive tariffs will be implemented in order to reduce water consumption.
Geleba said that the municipality will re-enforce a restriction notice which will impose a physical restriction of 15 kilolitres of water per month per household.
He added, “It also encourages consumers to use water for basic consumption only.
“The use of water for swimming pools, car washes and other non-basic consumption is discouraged,” Geleba said.
With the recent drop in water levels at the Impofu Dam, no water is currently being extracted from this dam as just over 7% of usable water is left.
Geleba said that dam levels below 16% are regarded as ‘dead storage’, because water cannot be extracted below the intake tower. The water can, however, only be replenished or filled through rain water.
“The dead storage can however be extracted through floating pumps. The department is in the process of procuring the said pumps,” he said.
A total of 13 plumbers have been appointed since August 2016 to repair water leakage.
Asked about the backlog of water leaks in the metro, Geleba said that all leaks will be added to a database as the municipality recently procured a service provider to help deal with leaks.
Geleba added, “The municipality has recapitalised some of its vehicles to help with plumber mobility and will be able to re-prioritise and adjust its budget to implement drought intervention programmes.
“We also encourage consumers to report all leaks to 0800 205 050.”
The current dam levels are at 35.67% of total combined capacity, as of December 2.
