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Nelson Mandela Bay seems to stagger from one crisis to the next, as taps have run dry after floods left the dams full.
The irony can not be lost on anyone.
The crisis stretches across a vast swathe of Nelson Mandela Bay, from Motherwell and Bluewater Bay to Walmer, Lorraine, Summerstrand and KwaNobuhle.
Last week, devastating floods tore through Nelson Mandela Bay, while the metro astonishingly had no legally appointed acting city manager in place.
At the very same time, parliament’s Cogta committee was delivering a bruising assessment of the metro’s dysfunction, grilling officials over governance failures, instability in senior management, withheld grants, irregular expenditure and collapsing service delivery.
Before all that, it was collapsed pylons.
It really appears our city is in a permanent state of emergency, lurching from one crisis to the next while residents are left to absorb the fallout every time.
The municipality’s explanation shows the level of dysfunction that led to the water outages.
Flooded electrical systems, muddy water clogging treatment works, failing infrastructure, depleted reservoirs, excessive consumption and operational breakdowns were to blame.
For residents in Lorraine, the latest disaster compounded weeks of frustration.
“We don’t understand what’s going on. It is a nightmare,” said resident Lyn Haller, whose household has been without a proper water supply since April 25.
Her water was off long before the heavy rains.
While the metro’s dams have surged from critically low levels to near capacity after the rains, officials warned the system itself remains severely compromised.
Infrastructure and engineering acting executive director Joseph Tsatsire said high turbidity levels, electrical disruptions and soaring consumption continued to hamper recovery efforts.
Instead of relief arriving with the rain, residents are more hard-pressed.
It is like the city is operating in survival mode. Only time will tell what the next crisis will be in Nelson Mandela Bay.
