The drought-stricken Nelson Mandela Bay metro is set to lose yet another water source when the Churchill Dam is set to run dry on Friday, pushing the residents of four towns further to Day Zero.  

The water levels at Churchill Dam are sitting close to 8%.

Together with Loerie, Kouga, and Goendal, the dam levels are at 11.94%. 

The dams supply the towns of Gqeberha, Kariega, Despatch, and Colchester. 

DA councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro who sits on the infrastructure and engineering panel, said projections showed that Churchill Dam would run dry on Friday.  

Impofu dam ran dry last week and as an interim measure the NMBM is taking more water from the Kouga – Loerie System to make up the deficit. 

The municipality previously revealed that this can only be done in the short term and advised that in order to make the water in the Churchill Dam stretch, all water users must urgently reduce water consumption.  

When the dams run dry, taps in 107 areas will have no water. 

Despite this, the metro said it loses 30% of its water supply to leaking pipes. This is roughly 81 megaliters of clean water per day. 

Last week, the municipality said it had hired 10 private plumbing companies to bolster its teams of plumbers to tackle the leaks. 

The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has also joined forces with the municipality and the humanitarian organisation, the Gift of the Givers, to help avert Day Zero.

Gift of the Givers has started drilling 10 boreholes and the business chamber has donated water tanks, and their member companies have provided workers to assist.     

The SA Weather Service's Gqeberha office told News24 that although there were chances of rain on and off over the catchment areas into the weekend, this was not expected to significantly affect or impact dam levels at this stage.

On Saturday the metro announced that people had made a fire on a water pipe resulting in a massive pipe burst in Aspen Heights. 

The municipality said due to maintenance work to seal the massive leak, Bethelsdorp and Aspen Heights areas were expected to face disruption to water supply. 

"However, the Bethelsdorp reservoir is now at roughly 30% capacity. In the event that storage is depleted before repairs are completed, Bethelsdorp and Aspen Heights may face water outages," municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said.

The municipality has urged residents to use water sparingly and to help the city curb the scourge of vandalism by calling the vandalism hotline at 041 506 5500 to report criminal activity, and acts of vandalism, near municipal property.  

The municipality has been in the grip of a devastating drought since 2016 as no significant dam-filling rain has fallen in the area for years.

The NMB Chamber of Business said while it acknowledge that the lack of rain, which has resulted in low dam levels and has been one of the factors contributing to the water crisis, there were a number of other issues which have further worsened the situation.

It said among these factors were a lack of accountability and urgency from municipal leadership in dealing with the water issues, budget procurement, bottlenecks, lack of investment and maintenance of infrastructure, and qualified engineers no longer being employed by the municipality.

On Tuesday, a municipal council meeting resolved to approve a national intervention plan proposed by Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu.

The plan will result in the appointment of a specialist from Mchunu's office as acting executive director for infrastructure and engineering. 

This vacancy has been seen as a huge stumbling block in successfully dealing with the water crisis in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.