Water supply woes loom in Nelson Mandela Bay

Many Nelson Mandela Bay residents will have to find alternative means to cool off during the sweltering summer as large-scale water disruptions are expected in the Bay over the next few days.

Nelson Mandela Bay municipality apologised to residents for impending potential water supply shortages over the next 48 to 72 hours.

It said the water supply disruption was heavily affecting reservoir zones, with water supply systems experiencing reduced output.

“The Loerie water treatment works [is affected] due to a malfunction in the filter bank.

“The plant’s output has been reduced from 70-million litres a day [or 70ML/d] to 35ML/d.

At the Nooitgedacht water treatment works, urgent repairs by the Water User Association operating the system have delayed the release of water supply into the Scheepersvlakte balancing dam which supplies the Nooitgedacht works.

“Consequently, the average plant output has decreased from 190ML/d to about 100ML/d.

“This has an impact on the water availability in the metro as the combined reduction in available water totals 135ML/d.

“Recovery efforts, including repairs at the Loerie works and refilling the Scheepersvlakte Dam, are expected to take at least 48 hours, with full system stabilisation occurring thereafter.”

The main affected distribution reservoirs have critically low water storage, with Motherwell at 15%, Chelsea also at 15% and Greenbushes at 13%.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the municipality said.

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