The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality recorded the most water interruptions across all metros in SA in 2024.
It is a problem that persists across the metro, leaving residents high and dry for days on end.
According to a Stats SA report on the General Household Survey released in May, the Eastern Cape showed an improvement in households with access to water, but issues in the city remained.
“Compared to households nationally, a smaller percentage of households in metropolitan areas reported water interruptions,” the report reads.
“Water interruptions were most common in Nelson Mandela Bay [40.3%], which is almost six times more common than in Cape Town [6.9%].
“The percentage of households with access to an improved source of water increased by 3.3 percentage points between 2002 and 2024 [growing from 84.4% to 87.7%].
“The increases were particularly notable in the Eastern Cape [+13,8 percentage points] and KwaZulu-Natal.”
The ongoing water problems are worsened by scores of unattended leaks in communities across the city, with clean water streaming down streets due to burst underground pipes as a result of ailing infrastructure.
KwaNobuhle is one of the areas adversely affected by intermittent water outages and sidewalks routinely seeping the precious resource.
The findings of the General Household Survey provide a critical assessment of the levels of development in SA, the extent of service delivery and the quality of services in key service sectors.
Among these are education, health, disability, social security, housing, energy, access to and use of water and sanitation, environment, refuse removal, telecommunications, transport, household income, access to food, and agriculture.
“The percentage of households with access to piped or tap water in their dwellings, off-site or on-site by metropolitan area, shows that 98.1% of households in metros had access to tap water.
“This type of access to water was most common in Cape Town [99.8%], Johannesburg [99.6%],and Ekurhuleni [99.3%].
“The lowest access among metros was recorded in eThekwini [94.9%] and Buffalo City [95.6%].”
Ward 42 councillor Lulama Ngwane, Ward 45 councillor Sabelo Mabuda and Ward 46 councillor Ntobeko Nqakula were texted and called on Friday, and again on Sunday, but could not be reached for comment.
Resident Zalisile Mana said the water issues had been ongoing for months, with no permanent solution from the municipality.
“We can’t even blame the councillor at this point because he has been reporting the problem on several occasions but the municipality simply doesn’t care about the people.
“Some areas are affected more than others, for example in Area 11 they’d go without water for three weeks. I can only imagine how they survive.”
Another resident, Lindiwe Sogoni, said the Khayelitsha area was among the worst affected and that she hoped the municipality was attending to the issue.
“There’s no information from the municipality; all we know from the councillor is that there’s a burst pipe in Ward 42.
“We don’t know if the matter is being attended to or how far they are, we are just enduring the water outage which is really inconvenient — especially now that schools have reopened.
“It’s truly difficult because, when my husband and I are at work and the children are at school, we miss the water truck which comes twice a week.
“Other days you will see it from afar servicing other areas.
“I wish they came around every other day because as we speak, we don’t have stored water in the house, we rely on our neighbours.”
Resident Thanduxolo Mpumlo said he was not convinced the water provided by the city was safe for drinking.
“We use the water to do everything else but [not] to drink, because I just don’t trust if it’s safe for consumption.
“It’s months of this on and off. I really hope we’ll get to a point where we have water every day, because we pay for it.”
Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya acknowledged receipt of the media inquiry on Friday. Despite follow-ups at the weekend, he failed to respond by the time of publication.
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