In its
efforts to ensure uninterrupted water supply to Nelson Mandela Bay residents, the
Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) through its entity Rand Water, will deliver
a total of 100 water tanks and 10 water tankers (trucks) to the metro on
Thursday, June 17, 2021.
The
procurement and the delivery of water tanks and tankers comes after Minister
Lindiwe Sisulu visited the area at the end of April, where she made a
commitment that the services of Rand Water will be enlisted to deal with
drought effects in the area. The drought phenomenon has been relentless for a
while now and as a result, dam levels have hit rock bottom, posing a challenge
to water security.
Municipalities
that are set to benefit from this intervention include Nelson Mandela Bay, Ndlambe
and Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipalities.
According
to DWS director of media liaison, Sputnik Ratau, the water needs of the metro
are supplied from the Algoa Water Supply System where most of the resource is
outside the metro’s geographical boundaries.
“Major
dams supplying the NMBM are low and their last spill was in 2015. To mention a
few dams, Kouga Dam is sitting at 4.1%, Impofu at 15%, Churchill at 21% and Loerie Dam at 26,47% this week,” Ratau
said.
The
combined storage declined to 11.8% this week compared to 19.7% at this time
last year. The system comprises of six sub-systems, mostly from local dams and
sources but also receives a large portion of water from the Upper Orange
Catchment via Gariep Dam and the Orange Fish Sundays translocation scheme.
“The
Department of Water and Sanitation with its stakeholders in the province,
convenes drought monitoring meetings that are conducted bi-weekly and on a
monthly basis to monitor and discuss the performance of the Algoa Water Supply System
as well as compliance to the water restrictions,” Ratau added.
Current
interventions include the development of groundwater resources by the NMBM and
adjacent municipalities over the last three years as a short term intervention
to ease the situation.
The
DWS is funding the implementation of the Nooitgedacht Coega Low-Level
Scheme (NCLLS). This entails the augmentation scheme for the bulk water supply
system of NMBM to increase present water supply from the Orange River System
from 90 mega litres per day (Ml/d) (90 Ml/d peak) to 160 Ml/d (210 Ml/d peak).
This
project is implemented in phases. Phase one was implemented at a total cost of R578,7
million of which the DWS funded R453 million from the Emergency Scheme grant
and was co-funded by the NMBM to the value of R125.7 million.
Phase two
was implemented by the NMBM. Phase three is funded by the DWS at a cost of R437 million whilst the NMBM is paying for the
services of the project engineer as co-funding. The estimated commissioning of phase three
is expected to be September 2021.
Other
intervention projects include the work done on the Orange Fish Sundays
Translocation Scheme on the Lower Sunday’s River Canal and the estimated
completion date is November 2021.
