The South African Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu, announced today that the Section 63 intervention instituted in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM) early last year to avert Day Zero has been lifted.
The Minister said he is satisfied with progress made with interventions to Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (BMBM) to avert Day Zero through various short, medium to long term projects to expand water supply. He was also satisfied with efforts made by Kouga Municipality.
Minister Mchunu and the Eastern Cape Provincial MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Zolile Williams, met with the NMBM Council during a two day visit (15-16 August) to the Eastern Cape drought affected areas of the Metro, Jeffreys Bay and Makana. The EC visit was organised to receive updates and progress reports on water intervention projects in the region.
The Section 63 intervention was put in when the Metro faced a high risk of running out of water within 30 days owing to the drought. A 63 intervention allows the Minister to intervene at municipal level and take full control of a service delivery programme in instances were municipalities fail to provide water services, as a basic human right.
Minister Mchunu said, however, water restrictions imposed on the Metro when dams started drying up, will remain as gazetted and that the municipality is expected, for the next 18 months, to report quarterly to the department on progress on the business transformation process, with a particular focus on progress with the following: water conservation and demand management; improving the level of service; and the implementation of the business turnaround strategy to ensure resilience.
Minister Mchunu lauded the Metro for the progress made in recovering from eminent Day Zero and addressing all water leaks backlogs, and further urged the Metro to pay more attention to improving their demand and consumption which has not reduced even during the drought season and may threaten future water security. Minister Mchunu also lauded Kouga Municipality for forward-thinking water measures put in place by the municipality.
“It has been an honour to be part and assist this world class city that is known across the world because of the name bestowed to it. We would like to see this name rising higher in a good way and bring more investment to the city. We hope that after our exit, the metro does not regress and is able to maintain the status quo with all the interventions that have been put in place,” said Minister Mchunu.
The NMBM Mayor, Clr Gary van Niekerk ,said operations in place to curb the scourge of vandalism included a collaboration with the community, security companies and the SAPS. Interventions put in place included emergency water supply and expanding water supply through water tankering, new groundwater boreholes constructed and linked to distribution system, and the upgrades of the Nooidgedacht Water Treatment Works (Low Level Scheme phase 3) which consisted of increasing supply of treated water from Gariep Dam to a total peak supply capacity of 210 megalitres per day and decreasing dead storage level of Impofu Dam to increase capacity, as well as the desalination of sea water as a long term goal.
Minister Mchunu, accompanied by the MEC, Department of Water and Sanitation Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips, provincial government and local government officials, began the two day in Jeffrey’s Bay Water Treatment Works in Kouga municipal area yesterday.
following severe droughts since 2015 after the dams: Kouga, Impofu and Churchill, supplying water to the municipality were not filling due to lack of rainfall resulting in the municipality losing most of the water allocation from the dams.
As a response to the drought, the department had allocated a further R57-million to Kouga Municipality from the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) to implement drought relief projects. The Municipality drilled nine boreholes followed by the construction of Water Treatment plants, constructed a water purifying plant to treat borehole water. The Water Treatment Works are aimed at enabling Kouga Municipality to supply up to 70% of its own average water consumption and rely on the Metro for only 30%.
MEC Williams thanked the Minister for the intervention and support he is providing to the EC municipalities.
The Algoa Water Supply System which is comprised of the dams that feed into Kouga municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, is currently standing at an average of 46,7%, an increase from last week’s 44,7%. The Impofu Dam remains low at 16,9% while Loerie dam is at full capacity sitting at 95.5% while Kouga also continues to soar from last week’s 54.6% to 57.6% this week.
St Francis Chronicle 