The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, is confident that Day Zero will be avoided in Nelson Mandela Bay, now that the national department has stepped in to intervene.
Mchunu, who recently visited the metro to conduct awareness campaigns about the looming Day Zero with residents, addressed the media and announced that the department was intervening through Section 63 of the Water Services Act, 108 of 1997 and appointing the Amatola Water Board as an implementing agent.
This means that the department will take leadership of water and sanitation projects to resolve water challenges that are currently taking place in the metro.
He said that they would be taking on a three-step approach to avoid taps running dry.
The first step will be to mitigate the drought, the second to reduce water demand and thirdly, extending the water supply.
“We are getting closer and closer to Day Zero and this looming crisis has required us to intervene. There is a severe scarcity of water for residents, businesses and animals because it simply doesn’t rain here. I’ve been hearing about dam levels and I call it a horror (story) and I am not even exaggerating,” Mchunu said.
He explained that the metro’s water demand remained exceptionally high because residents were currently using 280ML per day, which they will be reducing to 230ML per day.
“We are going to restrict water supply and we humbly, humbly, humbly request each citizen to obey. We are not just restricting from the source but what is actually delivered [through the taps]. We want to avoid stopping water completely, that is why we are restricting on a technical level.
“We are not going to enforce this with rudeness or brutality. We need a powerful understanding on the part of citizens that there has to be a restriction.”
Mchunu continued by saying that 30% of the metro’s water was lost due to leaks and called it “a sickness.”
“We will be undertaking proper metering and proper billing but we are starting with communication. There is just no water in this place but people can do wonders if they understand. We just need to make them understand.
“More water also needs to be augmented and that is why we are also looking at phase 4 of Nooitgedacht.”
Nelson Mandela Bay director of water and sanitation, Barry Martin, who also attended the media briefing, said that one of the ways the water supply would be extended was by transferring water from the eastern to the western side of the metro, a plan that had already been implemented.
“The transfer operation is currently active and 75ML per day is being transferred from the east to the west. This means that the east also has to save more water for the west. We are also fast tracking on the boreholes,” Martin said.
Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor, Eugene Johnson, said that the municipality welcomed the intervention.
“This is what we were waiting for. Many organisations have also come forward to help us. We can’t play the blame game; we need all hands on deck.
“We will be led by the minister and the Amatola Water Board and give our full cooperation as a city,” she said.
Mchunu once again reiterated that he was confident that the metro would avoid Day Zero.
He also added that all plans for the three-step approach needed to be finalised today, as there was no luxury of time.
