Frequently Asked Questions Around the Lifting of Water Restrictions
Question: Has the protocol with regards to lifting restrictions changed? The last time restrictions were lifted it was just after the dams went over (a combined) 70% capacity, and it was a matter of a day or two before restrictions were lifted. Please explain.
Answer: Water restrictions were introduced based on historic information, i.e. the 2005 drought. When modeling was carried out for the consideration of the restriction for the new financial year it became evident that the NMBM should have been more aggressive with the introduction of restrictive measures.
In 2008 the NMBM met the target of providing basic water to all within the urban edge and since the 2005 drought the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) has constructed approximately 3 000 houses per annum. The municipality during the last financial year (2010-2011) alone delivered more than 7 500 houses. As a result of this, more households needed water during the period of diminishing water resources. Under normal rainfall conditions these dams would have met these needs.
At the commencement of the drought nobody could have predicted its severity and one tends to base assumptions on history. This drought however has probably been the worst in about 20 years. In 2008 the area had the lowest rainfall since the year 1900.
The determination to lift water restrictions are therefore informed by the above. Also note that although the average dam levels are at 86% it must be borne in mind that this figure is influenced by the largest dam, Kouga. The majority of the 125 910 megalitres of water in the Kouga Dam (75%) is allocated for the farmers while the remainder – 25% (or 31 477.50 megalitres) is for Nelson Mandela Bay.
More than 50% of the water for the Bay is supplied from the Churchill (currently at 31 159 megalitres and 88.4%) and Impofu (currently at 65 685 megalitres 66.1%) dams.
Editors Notes: So we now actually have 142 976.5 megalitres available in the main supply dams. If we say the consumption per day will increase to 350 megalitres from the present 238 megalitres per day AND assume that we must leave 30% of the water in the dams then we have 285.95 days of stored water left from an available quantity of 100 083.2 megalitres – assuming of course that our rainy month of August is a dry month and that it does not rain in the catchment areas for the next 285.95 days.
My pea brain says – lift the water restrictions and when the 70% capacity is reached then immediately introduce far more punitive restrictions than what we have presently until such time as we hit 80% again. Then continue to do so until the measures being introduced to increase the supply to the Metro are complete – at least that way we are working together.
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Question: Please explain the process this time around: The NMBM has met with Water Affairs and decided on a plan of action. Why does it (NMBM) not lift restrictions while the department goes about changing its restrictions.
Answer: This statement is based on the assumption that all the restrictions will be lifted.
However the above must be taken into consideration when looking at the future. Based on this, the outcomes of the operational meeting are currently being considered nationally for approval.
Question: Will the use of hosepipes (to water gardens/ wash cars/ etc) be banned permanently? It seems that despite the (almost) full dams, and the Nooitgedacht Low Level Scheme upgrade imminent. If this is not the case, what option is being considered by the NMBM?
Answer: Any future restrictions will be informed by the outcomes of possible restrictions by the Department of Water Affairs. The level of restrictions imposed on the extraction of water from the dams will determine the extent of restrictive measures. However, it is important to note that it will be a futile exercise for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to lift water restrictions at this stage, with the prospect, based on the increasingly irregular rainfall patterns recorded over recent decades, of having to re-impose it within a few months.
Question: Please can you provide a schedule for work on the Nooitgedacht upgrade: What date will physical work on the upgrade start?; what will the upgrade cost; and what exactly will be upgraded and at what cost?
Answer: Nooitgedagt / Coega Low Level Scheme:
- Expansion of the existing water treatment works.
- Pump stations (three)
- Rising (pumping) main
- Reservoir
- Gravity main
Cost estimate: R770 million.
Rising and gravity main construction:
- Contracts were awarded in April 2011.
- Physical construction to commence 15 July or towards end of July 2011.
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To me it just looks like the municipality doesn’t want to loose the extra revenue stream created by the higher fees for water during restrictions. Perhaps I’m wrong. What does puzzle me is the fact that in all these years the municipality didn’t seem to worry about increasing our water supply much. Perhaps they should have started looking around for new sites to build dams long ago, extend the current ones and get the pipeline from the Gariep Dam increased. The Nooitgedagt shouldn’t been seen as the “be all” of solving the water problem. I agree with your statement that they should AT LEAST lift the restrictions a bit and stop milking the already exhausted and empty pocket consumer for more money.
A thought for the next time we have a drought and the dam levels decrease alarmingly:
Surely the dams silt up over time so why can we not allow people to remove soil and silt from the exposed dam areas? My pea brain says that this will create jobs at minimal cost AND increase the dam capacities.
Some advice to Alan on his idea to allow people to remove excess soil from the dam’s floors :
its generally is composed of silt which has compacted over many years, so the after the first futile attempt to dig it out people will be calling for yellow machines to dig (who pays?), and then transport as one cubic meter of loose silt/soil weighs 1800 kg. Few bakkies will be able to carry that legally on our roads, (and that will only save one kl water, as 1 cu.m. soil = 1 cu.m. water = about R8.00). Transport at , say, R5.00 per km from Kouga Dam to PE, about 140 km, it works out to R700 per cu meter. It’s cheaper to buy soil from China.
Good try, but lets think of something else.
If they repatriated the million plus illegal aliens, our water supply would not have tanked out in the first place.
I feel they should relax charging the higher tariff for water consumption, the penalty tariff. Modify the existing restrictions, keep the non use of hosepipes for watering the garden and washing the car in place. At least I can start showering every day again as apposed to every second day, I would like to feel clean again on a daily basis. Single person households have that luxury at present.
I now of an incident where a single elderly lady was filling her pool, because she was under her daily household consumption allowance and as a single person and could fill her pool and stay with in the consumption limits, While struggling families ( 6 member families) are being penalized because the battle to keep the consumption low enough to avoid the penalty and are much more water conscious than the old duck.
I say relax the penalty tariff and lets get on with our normal lives, we have adapted to watering our gardens with boreholes and grey water systems).
The logic escapes my blonde little brain – very, very odd!
During the height of the drought we were told that it didn’t matter that some dams were doing well, because it was all worked out as an average capacity, according to some strange formula. Now that the dams are at an average of over 83% (using the same formula), we are being told, no, its all about one dam that’s not full enough. Huh?? Second issue: during the years of drought, couldnt the idiots in charge have worked out a plan that would have come into effect when the dams did reach the required average? Now they are blundering about after the fact, contradicting their earlier commitments, and no doubt believing that they are running a municipality full of stupid citizens. To the NMB Metro officials: if you can’t lift the restrictions now, at least put some halfway measures in place, to give us some relief. Or is that too complicated?
Some excellent points Ant Man. Another thing that Kupido et al has forgotten is that PE Citizens tend to have long memories – I don’t want to be in the NMB’s Shoes when the next drought rolls around, especially if it is around elections time again.
I live in a 7 person household and our average monthly water usage has been 7 to 10 kilolitres since the restrictions kicked in. I would love to stop using buckets though and saving every drop of shower water! I cannot wait for the restrictions to be lifted.