Durban - The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMB) in the Eastern Cape has urged water users within the city to reduce water consumption as water disruptions have started to affect several suburbs, as a result of the ongoing drought crisis.
According to an NMBM press release, the city’s dam capacity continues to decline at an alarming rate with a total of 14.90% recorded from the major storage dams supplying the metro on January 9.
As a result of the severe drought, NMBM cannot meet the water demand of 286 megalitres a day, resulting in severe water shortages. The city’s approved abstraction volume by the Department of Water and Sanitation is only 230 megalitres per day.
NMBM Executive Mayor, Retief Odendaal said on January 6, that the low dam levels have caused a strain to the system, leading to Nooitgedacht Water Treatment Works (WTW) supply deficit.
"This has had knock-on effects such as reservoir levels at Grassridge and Olifantskop reservoir, causing reduced flow to parts of the City, specifically the east-west transfer system. To mitigate the failure at Nooitgedagt WTW, an increased supply was produced from Lorrie WTW. Efforts have been made by our teams to avoid any water disruption, but Fairbridge Heights, Rosedale and Scheepershoogte reservoir have been affected,” Odendaal said.
Fairbridge Heights reservoir is completely dry at 0% capacity. This has caused water disruptions to areas including Fairbridge Heights, Janssendal, Levyvale, Scheepershoogte, Strelitzia Park, Valleisig, Van Riebeeck Hoogte, Vanes Estate and Winterhoek Park in Kariega.
"Rosedale reservoir is currently low and high-lying areas in the reservoir zone are experiencing water disruption. Scheepershoogte reservoir is at 11% capacity,” said Odendaal.
NMBM will continue to implement mitigation measures and will continue to ensure that supply to all areas is restored as quickly as possible. The city implored residents to reduce their water usage and use water for basic needs only.
Worryingly, the Impofu dam recorded a low of 7.27% last Friday, the lowest it has ever been since the dam was constructed in 1983.
“The drought situation is real and we need everyone to take it seriously and reduce their water consumption,” Odendaal said.
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