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With 40% of Nelson Mandela Bay set to hit Day Zero in less than two weeks, the ANC-led coalition government has stood by and done nothing while millions of litres of fresh water have been running into the sea from the Upper and Lower Van Stadens Dams.

The Lower Van Stadens Dam normally has two pumps that transfer the water to the Linton Water Treatment Works (WTW) in Port Elizabeth.  Both pumps have been defective for more than 10 years.

Due to these defective pumps three million litres of high-quality fresh water per day have been running from the Lower Van Stadens Dam into the sea.

On numerous occasions the DA has requested that the pumps be repaired. We have been informed that senior municipal officials apparently indicated that it is “too little water to worry about”, and that it was too expensive to repair the pumps.

A new pump was eventually delivered last week. It has been reported that it will take a couple weeks to be connected to the existing infrastructure - the pipes leading to Linton WTW.  As these pipes have not been used for several years there is uncertainty if they are still operational.

At the most recent meeting of the Disaster Management Committee the National Department of Water and Sanitation provided feeback that the Metro’s "other" water resources – the Springs, Groendal, Sand and Bulk Dams - have been under-utilised for some time.

While the Metro’s main supply dams – the Impofu and Churchill Dams – have been running dry, the municipality has been wasting water and not using resources that could have mitigated Day Zero.

As part of the Minister of Water and Sanitation’s intervention plan in NMB, the Amatola Water Board was recently appointed to take over the Metro’s Water and Sanitation sub-directorate.

I have written to the interim chairperson of the Amatola Water Board, Pam Yako, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss bringing these two dams online, as well as other bulk water issues in Nelson Mandela Bay.

We must make use of all available bulk water sources to push Day Zero back for as long as possible.

The ANC-led coalition government has proved incapable of dealing with this crisis and this intervention by national government will hopefully assist in saving our residents from total disaster.

The DA will do all it can to assist residents during this unprecedented drought, drawing from the best practice that our governments have already shown in drought disaster management.

Issued by Cllr Dries van der Westhuizen - DA NMB Spokesperson for Infrastructure and Engineering