More than 60% of Nelson Mandela Bay’s water is being lost through leaks, theft, illegal connections and faulty metering, according to water and sanitation deputy minister Jack Bloom, who has warned that the scale of the losses is unacceptable in a water-scarce country.
The national No Drop programme puts SA’s average non-revenue water at 47.3%, meaning the metro’s losses are significantly higher than the national average.
Bloom, who was appointed deputy minister two months ago, made the comments after visiting the Nooitgedacht Water Treatment Works and Groendal Water Treatment Plant on Monday.
He travels to the Kouga Local Municipality on Tuesday to continue his assessment of water and sanitation service delivery.
Bloom said Nelson Mandela Bay had been high on his list of places to visit because of the national attention its water challenges had received.
“It is a major metro, so it was really important that I see for myself what the state of water and sanitation is and what could be done about it,” he said.
He was particularly concerned about the extent of the metro’s non-revenue water.
“Non-revenue water is basically unaccounted-for water, stolen water, illegal connections, water that is not properly metered and also physically lost water,” he said.
Bloom said the extent of the city’s physical water losses could be debated, but estimated that between 30% and 40% could be lost through the network when compared with other cities experiencing similar levels of non-revenue water.
“There seems to be something like 30% to 40% of actual physical losses,” he said.
“We cannot do this as a water-scarce country, where we pump water from elsewhere, tap alternative water sources, then 40% of water is just lost in the network.”
Bloom said the metro was receiving about 5,000 water-related complaints, many involving leaks.
“At the moment it is 5,000 water complaints, which is basically leaks, and that is a big figure, and it needs to be attended to,” he said.
He also highlighted vandalism and theft of municipal water infrastructure as major contributors to the problem.
“I also picked up that the other issue is vandalism, so obviously I think security should be integral with everything you do with water infrastructure in the city,” Bloom said.
“For a little bit of copper, a bit of metal, they just pull them out, and it costs an immense amount of money to fix it.”
Billions of rand had been invested in dams, pipelines and water purification schemes, making water losses a significant concern.
The department was seeking greater accountability through measures including the Water Conservation and Demand Management Strategy, while the National Treasury was also becoming stricter.
Bloom said sanitation remained another major concern, particularly the contamination of rivers by sewage.
“It concerns me very deeply that our rivers get contaminated by sewage,” he said.
“It has to be a great concern, so I will be looking very carefully at the directives that my department is presently giving to NMB.
“There should be accountability, and there can be interventions.”
Infrastructure and engineering political head Buyelwa Mafaya said the metro’s water conservation and demand management strategy had already been approved.
She said the municipality was encouraged by Bloom’s assessment of its Blue Drop performance, which measures drinking-water quality, but acknowledged the challenges posed by non-revenue water.
“That, the water conservation and demand management strategy, among other things, is something that we are going to look at so that whatever we have an issue of in terms of budget can be addressed,” Mafaya said.
She said six teams had been appointed to address water leaks, while major pipeline projects were also under way.
“Currently, we have six clusters that we have appointed that are addressing the water leaks,” she said.
Work was also being done on major pipelines, including the R75 between Gqeberha and Kariega and Mission Road.
“We are trying to address the issue of water being drawn from the Orange River to Nooitgedacht, and after that we will have to replace the aged pipelines, which are also contributing to water leaks,” she said.
“Looting and vandalism are affecting the municipality negatively.”
Mafaya said theft and vandalism had forced the municipality to redirect funds towards replacing damaged infrastructure.
She said the metro had applied for funding for a desalination plant two years ago, but the National Treasury rejected the application.
Mafaya said the municipality remained hopeful for the project, particularly after Bloom called for coastal cities to consider desalination as an additional water source.
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