With less than a year of potable water remaining in its dams, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has attributed the decline in supply primarily to high consumption levels and drought conditions.
This is despite vandalism and ageing infrastructure, which have contributed to water losses of up to 52.74% in the 2024/2025 financial year.
The Bay’s daily water usage far exceeds its target of 280 megalitres, averaging 384 megalitres a day.
The municipality maintains that infrastructure-related losses are a challenge affecting municipalities across SA.
The municipality has also invested R1.8bn in borehole augmentation projects, decreasing pressure on surface water and improving resilience against future droughts.
Dams were sitting at 47.7% capacity as of Monday.
However, once dead storage is considered, the actual available water is about 38.76%, equating to about 109,132 megalitres.
This is estimated to last about 246 days.
Dozens of suburbs in the metro get their water from the Churchill, Impofu, Kouga and Loerie dams.
This excludes the Gariep Dam supply, which provides 200 megalitres a day through the Nooitgedacht water treatment works to other parts of the city.
The 5.34-million megalitres dam is at 97%.
In a statement on Tuesday, municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said the primary driver of water scarcity remained prolonged below-average rainfall, elevated temperatures, and adverse climatic conditions.
“Droughts are climatic events and are not caused by water leaks or ageing infrastructure.
“Infrastructure-related losses affect the efficiency with which available water is conveyed and distributed once it has already entered the system.
“Conflating these two issues risks misinforming residents and oversimplifying a complex and multi-dimensional challenge.
“The municipality acknowledges that ageing water infrastructure remains a significant operational challenge, particularly in older parts of the metro,” he said.
Last week, the SA Weather Services revealed that below-normal rainfall could be expected for the Eastern Cape’s south coast for the next three months.
This is while warmer-than-normal daytime temperatures were also expected.
The metro has faced intense scrutiny over non-revenue water losses, which reached 73.71-million kilolitres in the 2024/2025 financial year.
This includes non-technical losses from theft and water lost to leaks.
“The current reported backlog of water leaks is approximately 2,000,” Soyaya said.
“This figure is a moving target, as new leaks are reported daily while others are repaired.
“Internal municipal teams are repairing water leaks daily across the metro, ensuring continuity of service while longer-term capacity is being strengthened.”
He said the appointment of an external service provider was being finalised to augment internal capacity.
In the meantime, Soyaya said the city had invested R1.8bn to boost water pumped from the boreholes.
This investment has strengthened groundwater capacity, diversified water sources and reduced reliance on surface water, thereby improving resilience against future droughts.
The borehole’s design capacity allows for 29.37 megalitres a day to be supplied into the city’s recirculation system.
In November, however, they only pumped in 34.46% of this.
Soyaya said last week that this was due to sustainability controls, aquifer protection requirements, water quality considerations and mechanical constraints.
“Boreholes are managed as a strategic supplementary source, not a primary supply, to prevent groundwater depletion and ensure long-term environmental sustainability.
“Ongoing assessments and maintenance interventions are aimed at optimising output without compromising system integrity,” he said.
