Though Nelson Mandela Bay’s dams are expected to run dry by July, members of the Victoria Park Bowling Club in South End have been battling for almost a month to get a big underground leak fixed.
The municipality has warned of possible water cuts in various residential areas due to the ongoing crippling drought.
Mayor Retief Odendaal said engineers had provided an update on Thursday that the water level of the metro’s supply dams was dropping at an alarming rate.
“If we do not decrease our consumption now, it is a mathematical certainty that we could run out of water by July.
“This is a crisis that affects everyone, therefore we all need to work together to prevent this from happening.
“With no significant rainfall, we might need to go on forced emergency supply for basic water.
“This entails cutting back the residential reticulation supply and the use of collection points and JoJo tanks.
“This is the stark reality we are faced with,” Odendaal said.
Back at the bowling club, meanwhile, the taps ran dry at the weekend after members, exasperated by the metro’s failure to stop the underground leak — which is flooding the parking lot — decided to closed the inlet valves.
Club member Mavis Smith said different members had reported the leaks to the municipality for weeks but their complaints had fallen on deaf ears.
Smith said she frequently visited the club, and it was a concern that clean water was being wasted.
“We have a water crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay and I would love to take a full bubbly bath but I can’t because we must save water,” she said.
“I had been demotivated in reporting [the leak] because members said they did so already but no help is coming.
“This water is being wasted every day and affects the parking area,” she said.
Club president Danny Zdanow said its members opened the meter and switched off the water supply but the water continued to leak.
“We have reported the matter to the municipality. The water is running across the pavement and parking area.
“It makes it difficult for the cars,” he said.
“We would appreciate it if the municipality could really come and fix the leak.
“The parking lot is always muddy because of the leak.”
The city’s infrastructure and engineering political head, Dries van der Westhuizen, said he had visited Victoria Park for others reasons and was told about the leak.
However, Van der Westhuizen said he could not find it.
“We will revisit the park to look for the leak, and see if it can’t be prioritised.
“However, we have a 5,000-leak backlog since the start of the week.
“But I have given an instruction to my directorates that by the end of February, I want them done with all historical leaks,” he said.
In an effort to continue supplying residents with water, the Loerie Water Treatment Works is producing an average of 51 megalitres of water a day though the allocated amount was 40ML.
Due to this over-abstraction, the municipality must now decide whether to cut back to 40ML in the next three days.
Though the areas supplied by the Motherwell reservoir and Coega Kop are still getting a water supply, the Chelsea reservoir is relatively low at 30%, which could result in water disruptions in the areas it supplies.
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