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Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

What is the REAL Reason for the ‘slight decrease’?

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The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality says that a slight water consumption decrease shows that working together we can reduce water consumption.

Could the ‘spin doctors’ NOT be aware of the widespread water shedding across the Metro this week? Surely THAT has a huge influence on the ‘slight decrease’?

AUS?iot Monitor
AUS?iot Monitor – remote online reading of your water meter

One of the measures being punted is for residents to read their water meters at least twice daily. They can accomplish this on a much more regular basis and WITHOUT going outside or even being on their property with the installation of an AUSiot-Monitor which non-invasively collects water usage data directly from the water meter through an intelligent sensor collecting pulses from the water meter itself. The water meter monitor collects this data in real-time and transmits the information to a live dashboard.

You are able to view this data by month, day, or even down to the hour, in an easy-to-use graph format. You can access the data on the live dashboard 24/7 and see your water consumption at the click of a button, essentially having a picture of your water bill whenever you want!

If you have a water meter with a small probe hole next to the analog readout then you can easily accomplish this – if not, then purchase an analog water meter with such a hole in, install it inline after your water meter and you will be able to deploy the AUSiot-Monitor quickly and easily.

Purchase of the AUSiot-Monitor comes with a year’s access to an online dashboard.

The water meter monitor works on the LoRaWAN® network –  a Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national or global networks, and targets key Internet of Things (IoT) requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localization services.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality released a statement today sating that NMB has recorded a slight decrease in water consumption from 291 million litres a day earlier recorded this week to 267 million litres, however this consumption remains far too high.

The 24 million litres saving per day is way too little as compared to the alarming daily average consumption of between 260 million litres to 300 million litres a day.

The combined dam levels are just above 12.17 percent, with the biggest NMBM dam supply, Mpofu Dam levels sitting below a mere 9%. The recent rainfall has not made much difference with just a mere 0.25 percent increase. The Metro needs at least no less than rainfall of >50mm in 24hrs to make any significant change.

As consistently communicated by the weather specialist, Garth Simpson at the Drought Crisis Joint Operations Centre(JOC) that, only floods can break or bring a relief to this situation”, the City needs a contribution of each and every person to save every drop we can.

The situation has become so dire that residents and businesses in then red zones experienced water outages for two to three days this week alone. The Metro would like to thank those residents and businesses that have responded to the call of action by implementing water saving measures at their homes and businesses.

Several enforcement measures and close monitoring of water consumption across the City is currently underway. Pressure management infrastructure has been in place to decrease the volume of water that is lost through leaks. Water flow restrictors have already been installed in more than 30 thousand household that were identified as high consumers. This project is continuing on a daily basis.

Through the Metro Police, water restriction by laws enforcement has been accelerated, focusing more on businesses that have been identified as high water users.

The Executive Mayor Retief Odendaal has also taken it upon himself to call each and every identified high water consumer to make them aware of the severe implications of their actions with the intention for them to decrease consumption.

One of the areas where water wastage has been identified is in schools accounting to about 25 percent of water losses.

All identified schools have been communicated to formally with some visited by the Municipal Communications office for a water saving awareness workshops and awareness session to education stakeholders currently underway.

The Executive Mayor Odendaal and his Mayoral committee on Thursday, 9 March started rolling out Community Water Crisis face to face engagements with the intention to mobilise residents and businesses to save water and adopt a water saving lifestyle.

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Views Since 15 July 2022: 21

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.