Nelson Mandela Bay water woes persist amid electricity issues

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Residents in the western areas of Nelson Mandela Bay will have to contend with intermittent water supply for a little longer as electricity issues continue to hamper supply of the scarce resource.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality said the water supply situation had not shown significant improvement over the past weekend.

This follows electricity-related disruptions experienced at the Motherwell and Nooitgedagt systems last week.

“Recent site inspections conducted by municipal technical teams indicate that the Nooitgedagt Water Treatment Works is currently unable to operate at full capacity.

“This is due to highly turbid (muddy) raw water being received from the Scheepersvlakte Balancing Dam, which was caused by rainfall runoff from the upper reaches of the Darlington Dam.”

It said while water turbidity levels have improved they remain above the average norm of 100 NTU.

“As a result, two sedimentation lanes at the Nooitgedagt Water Treatment Works have been temporarily taken out of operation to allow for desludging over a two-day period.

“The remaining lanes will undergo the same process in phases.

“As each sedimentation lane is cleaned and brought back into operation, water production is expected to increase gradually.

“This will enable improved pumping capacity from the eastern system to the western areas, which have been the most negatively affected by the recent water shortages.”

Electricity supply in the Motherwell area is also expected to stabilise after the completion of infrastructure work by the electricity and energy directorate.

The planned electricity shutdown at the Nooitgedagt facility by Eskom, which was scheduled for this week, has also been postponed to April.

“This postponement will allow sufficient time for critical maintenance to be undertaken and for the system to be fully replenished ahead of the planned shutdown.

“The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality sincerely apologises for the inconvenience experienced by residents and businesses and assures the public that every effort is being made to accelerate system recovery and restore stable water supply as quickly as possible.”