Nelson Mandela Bay is once again edging towards a water disaster, with the metro’s combined usable dam levels slipping below the 40% mark for the first time in at least two years.
The crisis is not isolated to the Bay, with municipalities along the Garden Route such as Kouga and Knysna also suffering from a worsening situation.
In Knysna, reserves have dwindled to barely a week’s supply, prompting Western Cape local government, environmental affairs and development planning MEC Anton Bredell to push for a formal disaster declaration.
The news came as the SA Weather Services revealed that below-normal rainfall could be expected for the Eastern Cape’s south coast.
Warmer than normal daytime temperatures were also expected, increasing the risk of runaway fires.
The combined usable water in the metro’s five dams stood at 39.42% as of January 14.
On Wednesday, taking to its social media platforms, the municipality sounded the alarm, announcing the Impofu Dam, the city’s second-largest with a full capacity of 105,757 megalitres, was down to only 26.48% of usable water.
Residents were urged to:
- Reduce usage at home and take shorter showers, fix leaks and turn off taps;
- Reuse water where possible; and
- Limit watering lawns and washing cars.
The metro’s biggest dam, Kouga, is at 44.72%.
Churchill has 44.19%, Loerie 40.32% and the Groendal Dam has the highest available capacity of 85.04%
The Bay’s water usage, at 384 megalitres (ML) a day, is at present more than 100ML over its targeted 280ML a day.
On Wednesday, Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen said the city could not afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“Just three years ago, Nelson Mandela Bay came dangerously close to running dry,” she said.
“It is deeply concerning that there has not been a sustained and escalated focus on protecting water security since then by both the municipality and consumers.
“Safeguarding water requires constant vigilance, preventative maintenance and aggressive leak repairs, yet nearly half of the metro’s water remains unaccounted for.”
A November budget and treasury committee meeting revealed the city had lost more than half of its potable water during the 2024/2025 financial year, with 57.62%, or 73.71-million kilolitres, unaccounted for.
Non-revenue water losses reached a record high of 60.4% in September.
The city revealed an average of 6,000 water complaints monthly.
Van Huyssteen said the ongoing losses of millions of litres every day were financially reckless, environmentally damaging and fundamentally unsustainable.
In response to the escalating crisis, the chamber has relaunched its Adopt a School initiative, an urgent measure to slow the rapid water losses.
The situation has also been compounded by extreme heat conditions, resulting in a series of runaway fires.
DA councillor Dries van der Westhuyzen said despite the dams filling up post the last drought, which had seen the dam levels dropping as low as 12.11% by 2023, the city should never have removed usage restrictions.
“When the dams were full, the punitive tariffs were reduced from D to C and they took out the 15kl per property.
“At the moment, they say they recommend usage should not be more than 50 litres per person a day.
“So there is no limit on how much a person can use.
“I can use 20kl and just pay more, but if I have a decent job, it does not matter.
“It just disadvantages the poor, who cannot afford it.”
Earlier this week, the Knysna municipality issued a notice warning residents of excessive water usage and to comply with newly implemented restrictions.
This came after levels in the city’s primary dam, the Akkerkloof, reached 20%, equating to about 13 days of water remaining in the system at current consumption levels.
Further up the N2, the George municipality also issued a notice highlighting its challenges.
The municipality implemented level 3 emergency water tariffs following public participation, with the Garden Route Dam declining from 45.68% last week to 44.5% this week.
The City of Cape Town urged residents to use water sparingly after its dam levels dropped to 66% as of January 14.
Meanwhile, Kouga municipal spokesperson Monique Basson said water supply disruptions in the area during December had been confined to Jeffreys Bay, while other towns had maintained an uninterrupted supply.
She said previous funding had been used for the drilling of boreholes tapping into local aquifers, including similar projects in St Francis Bay.
“These projects were implemented as planned and have reduced the municipality’s reliance on the Churchill supply system in certain areas,” she said.
“Though these measures have strengthened local water resilience, Jeffreys Bay cannot operate independently from the Churchill supply network.
“The town’s water demand — particularly at the elevated levels experienced during December — exceeds the sustainable yield of its own boreholes and aquifer."
According to the South African Weather Service, below normal rainfall is expected for the Bay and Koukamma local municipalities.
“The outlook is not looking good for the next couple of months as below normal rainfall or drier than normal conditions are likely for the Eastern Cape’s south coast, which includes the Nelson Mandela Bay metro as well as Kouga and Koukamma local municipalities,” the weather service said.
“This implies less than 100 to 150mm (which is the climate average) is expected for the January to March period.
“Additionally, above normal or warmer than normal daytime temperatures are expected for the summer period over these areas.
“Consequently, the drier and warmer than normal weather will significantly increase the risk of runaway fires.”
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said no additional restrictions beyond existing conservation measures were being implemented at present.
“Dam levels and overall system performance are monitored daily, with operational decisions guided by rainfall trends, augmentation outputs and system stability,” he said.
He said any decisions relating to water tariffs or tariff adjustments fell within the authority of the council and the national water regulatory framework.
“Should any changes be required these will follow due process and be communicated transparently.”
Meanwhile, residents in Kariega have reported not having had water in their taps for weeks.
On Thursday, a Mosel resident said the outages had occurred on a daily basis.
“For the past few weeks, maybe longer than a month, we have had outages every day, or the pressure has been low to the point where we cannot use showers,” she said.
“But for the past two weeks, it has been off for a certain period and comes back at night.”
DA MPL Retief Odendaal has called for the department of water and sanitation (DWS) to intervene and send a team to assess the Bay’s water management processes.
In a letter sent to water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina on Wednesday, Odendaal said the R1bn the department had invested to augment water supply had made no progress in reducing non-revenue water losses.
“It is very clear that, notwithstanding commitments made by the city to commission and implement a Water Services Master Plan, there is currently no plan that informs repairs and maintenance programmes for the city’s ageing water reticulation,” Odendaal said.
“In addition, given the critical human skills shortage that exists in the NMB water services department, I have little faith that NMB will soon be in a position to make a demonstrable difference in sorting out its water services.
“This will no doubt lead to yet another water crisis, albeit a man-made one.
“Before we reach disaster stages, I want to request that [the department] send a delegation to NMB to assess what the city is doing to overcome the increasing non-revenue water as well as real water losses.”
Soyaya said the department of water and sanitation was already working closely with the city.
“As the national water authority, [the department of water and sanitation] has an ongoing statutory role in oversight, regulation and technical support,” Soyaya said.
“This engagement is continuous and structured, guided by the principles of co-operative governance as envisaged in the constitution.”
Water and sanitation spokesperson Wisane Mavasa confirmed receipt of Odendaal’s letter.
“The letter is receiving the necessary attention and will be responded to in due course,” she said.
