WORK to prepare for what seems to be the inevitable eventuality of KwaNobuhle running out of water has started with the installation of water tanks as an emergency intervention.
“All our actions are crisis management actions. The most sustainable way to deal with the water crisis is behavioural change in the way we use this scarce commodity while we as the metropole continue to invest in maintenance of our infrastructure,” said Mayoral Committee Member for Infrastructure and Engineering, Councillor Thsonono Buyeye.
For the past three months, Nelson Mandela Bay has not received any significant rainfall, while water consumption has continued to be high.
In terms of the current water restrictions, the metropole is supposed to be consuming less than 250 megalitres per day. However, this target has remained elusive, with a regular consumption of about 300 megalitres per day.
Mthubanzi Mniki, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Communications and Media Liaison Officer, said the high water consumption has led to a decline in the level of the main supply dam, the Kouga Dam, which supports KwaNobuhle, St Albans and the surrounding areas.
“KwaNobuhle, which has a population of approximately 250 000 people, currently receives its water from the Loerie Water Treatment Works (WTW) and has an estimated demand of 15 megalitres per day. Recent projections have revealed that a high probability exists that the Kouga Dam, which supplies the Loerie WTW, will run dry by July 2021,” said Mniki.
Water tanks placed at 50 sites
Following the call by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s Executive Mayor, Cllr Nqaba Bhanga, to the National Department of Water and Sanitation for an intervention, Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced that her Department would donate 100 water tanks and 10 water trucks to assist during the water crisis.
Fifty sites have been identified and each site will have two tanks installed, so as to allow for 10,000L of water to be supplied to the surrounding community. Water trucks will fill up at the Kabah Water Treatment Works, which is approximately 11km from the centre of KwaNobuhle. The trucks will also ferry water from the Treatment Works to the water tanks positioned in different areas.
Councillor Buyeye said that the project was the metropole’s proactive effort to manage the crisis ahead.
“We appreciate the intervention by the Department of Water and Sanitation. As we count days, it is becoming clear to us that we cannot avoid the eventuality of running out of water during the month of July.”
Residents must protect the tanks
Councillor Buyeye made a call to the people of Nelson Mandela Bay to continue to do everything to save water.
He also called on residents to protect the tanks as they are a critical service at a critical time.
An elderly resident of KwaNobuhle, Nontuthuzelo Nkosana who resides next to the newly installed tanks, said that residents were relieved that they would have alternative water supply.
“The intermittent supply has started. Some of us are old and have sicknesses and provision of water becomes a life and death issue. I’m happy that we have a water tank a few metres from my house,” said Nkosana.
