ORGANISED business is deeply concerned about the pending water crisis which is projected to impact water supply to at least a third of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan area.
Andrew Muir, President of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber said, “We appeal to national government to urgently make funding available to support mitigation initiatives to deal with the drought.
“In tandem with this the Eastern Cape province needs to declare the Metro a disaster area in order to secure additional funding to support the implementation of these initiatives,” said Muir.
Must get basics in place
“Key industrial and commercial businesses are located in the zones which are projected to potentially be without water from July. This is of great concern to us, particularly in terms of the impact it will have on our local economy. The automotive and related industries, which account for almost 40% of our Metro’s GDP, are located within these impacted areas.
“So too is Aspen’s sterile facility which will be producing vaccines for half of South Africa’s population,” Muir said.
While many businesses are urgently investing in measures to develop alternative water supply and to reduce their water consumption levels, not all have the resources to do so and also of concern, is the increasing cost of doing business in this Metro, Muir pointed out.
“We need an enabling environment in place if we want to retain and attract investment to our Metro. This requires the involvement and commitment of a wide range of stakeholders who need to unite together with the common goal of getting the basics in place.”
Inadequate planning and lack of maintenance
The NMB Business Chamber welcomes the decision taken by Council to approve the construction of the desalination plant, which will provide 15Ml per day to the Metro. It is however critically important that the completion date of May 2022 is achieved.
“We are facing a perfect storm caused by a number of issues, many of which could have been avoided. Inadequate forward planning and the lack of maintenance of infrastructure has impacted upon the reliability of electricity supply.
“Water leaks account for a loss of around 35% of our water, with at least 10% of this happening at schools and hence why the Chamber and its members have become involved in initiatives to curb water losses at schools,” said Muir.
Prioritise urgent initiatives
The NMB Business Chamber appealed to the relevant role players to prioritise the following urgent initiatives:
Boreholes
It is vitally important that as many boreholes as possible are constructed and become operational within the next few weeks. Water leaks Initiatives to fix water leaks need to be dramatically increased to address this unacceptable situation.
Nooitgedacht Water Project
This project, which commenced in 2010, is expected to yield 210Ml per day by completion and to supply approximately 70% of the city’s daily demand (versus the current 60%).
Current timing for completion is the end of 2021, and it is critical that this timing is adhered to and if possible, is even accelerated.
Maintenance of the Metro’s vehicle fleet
It has been reported that 80% of the Metro’s vehicles are grounded owing to pending repairs, which in turn has adversely impacted upon service delivery, particularly work related to water leak repairs. This issue needs to be prioritised and addressed urgently.
Water conservation
The Metro, its residents and the business community need to adopt water conservation as a way of life. It is a critical resource in this part of the country and should be treated as such.
Investment in infrastructure
The Metro’s water and electricity infrastructure is in a poor state owing to the lack of investment, as well poor maintenance over many years.
This unacceptable state of affairs can no longer continue and clear plans need to be developed and implemented to turn this situation around. Additionally, measures need to be implemented to prevent the vandalism of infrastructure.
Other measures
There are a number of additional measures which could be quickly implemented to further assist such as reducing water pressure at night time, promoting the use of rain water tanks and supporting the schools water loss project.
Muir said that the Business Chamber through its Electricity and Water Task Teams would continue to engage actively with the relevant stakeholders to lobby for urgent measures to be implemented in order to deal with the looming water crisis.
