Nelson Mandela Bay, is currently facing a very serious and severe drought, which has seen the levels of our supply dams reaching an all-time low of just above 24 percent. Yesterday, 26 January 2018 Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor Athol Trollip led a delegation of councillors and religious leaders to Churchill Dam to pray for rain.
Tireless and united efforts by the municipality, the local community, business and media to ensure that we save water and avert a catastrophe that is currently under way, and inroads have been made. However due to decreasing rainfall for the past two years, the City has reached a disaster level. Previously as part of enforced water restriction, the municipality had asked people to use 60 litres per person per day.
At the prayer session in Churchill Dam, the Executive Mayor further decreased the amount to 50 litres per person per day.
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“We want to thank those people who have headed our call to use 60 litres per person per day, it has made a lot of difference. Among the tireless efforts that we are making to reduce water consumption and find ways and means on how to avoid Day Zero, the City has decided to call religious leaders to come along as part of this site visit. We wanted them to pray with us as we ask for a divine intervention. There is a lot of effort we have put to reduce water consumption and safe water, we now pray to the Almighty God to come to our rescue,” said the Executive Mayor.
Since the drastic decrease in dam levels in 2016, the municipality has intensified its water saving awareness campaign. The City has also employed more plumbers and improved performance management systems within the teams that is dedicated to fix water leaks. This has not only decreased the turnaround time for the fixing of water leaks, it has also led to the municipality saving of millions litres of water. Late last year the municipality started a project of drilling boreholes for offset use at sports fields and swimming pools. The completion of phase 2 of the Nooitgedagt Water Supply has also optimised the extraction and usage of available water. This has resulted in an increase of available water from 90Ml per day to 13Ml per day. Phase 3 is currently underway. The City has also started an implementation plan to do water pressure management, water meter replacement and water pipe replacement.
According to Nelson Mandela Bay Director for Water Services, Barry Martin if we do not receive significant rain for the next six months, and consumers do not decrease consumption, the City will run out of water. “The municipality is taking a hard line on the residents who are high water users. We have installed water consumption control devices in their homes. We are now targeting businesses who are not responding to our call of decreasing consumption with the similar action,” said Martin.
Editor: For the record it DID rain on Friday evening and today, Saturday.
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