Africa-Press – South-Africa. Taps in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality could run dry in 20 days, but some communities have been faced with a lack of water for much longer, according to One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane.
On Saturday, Maimane visited Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, to “assess the water crisis”.
“The situation in the broader Nelson Mandela Bay area is dire and urgent. While the city has approximately 30 days left before the taps run dry, the community of KwaNobuhle has been without water for three weeks. To date, there is no water to homes in the community, no plan from government and no feedback to the community,” said Maimane.
He added that only one communal tap had been providing water to tens of thousands of residents.
Dam levels in the municipality were at 12.34% on Friday.
And, while Maimane says there are 30 days left, the municipality in a social media post said that, at the current water usage, there are only 20 days left until dam failure,
News24 previously reported the areas in which taps will run dry first include the western suburbs as well as the Kariega and KwaNobuhle areas.
Municipal spokesperson Luvuyo Bangazi said the Western areas had been plagued with intermittent water outages. This is the result of pumping water from low-lying areas to the high-lying areas in the west of the municipality.
There had also been some infrastructure damage, which had caused outages, but these had been repaired, Bangazi added.”We are not aware of any areas without water,” he said.Maimane urged the municipality to implement a rescue plan, to increase public awareness and limit water use.READ | Decent rainfall may have delayed Day Zero in Nelson Mandela BayThe Nelson Mandela Bay metro has to provide a long-term recovery plan, such as building additional dam capacity, sourcing desalinated water and building water recycling plants across the city.Maimane said:The only way Nelson Mandela Bay will avoid Day Zero and build longer-term water sustainability is with a clear and actionable plan from the government, and the people of the city working together to ensure the plan is executed.However, Bangazi said most of the solutions proposed were already being implemented by the municipality.”We concede that we haven’t ticked all the boxes in communicating the important work underway. The city’s joint operations centre, the multi-stakeholder nerve centre of government and civil society, will be briefing the citizens through the media after its meeting on Monday,” he said.
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