Africa: As part of the city’s strategy to reduce water losses, the municipality has intensified its war against water leaks.
Teams have been working hard to clear the backlog of water leaks across the Metro since the announcement to intensify the war on water leaks on Monday, June 20, 2022.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality JOC on Water Crisis, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, reported that since the new water leak reduction strategy was announced on Monday, big strides have been made. In just two days, 814 of the 3000 leaks in the system have been repaired.
The Director for Water Distribution, Mr Joseph Tsatsire, confirmed the number and said that the figures include Monday, June 21, 2022.
Tsatsire said that “the process of certification of work done includes the generation and stamping of job cards of the work done and completed, and that all work completed is submitted by the teams by 8 p.m. of that day and consolidated into a report the following day.”
The NMBM JOC spokesperson, Luvuyo Bangazi, said that “the JOC welcomes the progress made by municipal teams and service providers.”
He went on to say that at this rate, all 3000 water leaks in the backlog would be repaired by the weekend, giving the team time to deal with newly reported water leaks.
“The program to attack water leaks is part and parcel of the mitigation plan by the Metro to deal decisively with water leaks,” said Bangazi.
“This will aid in reducing staggering water losses and pushing back day zero,” added Bangazi.
Bangazi also stated that the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber would soon join the municipality in combating water leaks through its own adopt-a-leak initiative.
The JOC also revealed this afternoon that water use has decreased by 1 megaliter per day as of Tuesday, June 21, 2022.Â
A welcome development but still far short of the 60 mL/d consumption reduction target.
Water users are urged to make water-saving part of their lifestyle and stick to using 50 litres per person daily.
Residents in the low-lying areas on the east of the bay are urged to use water sparingly so that there is a sufficient supply to share with the affected areas.
Water consumers are encouraged to track their daily consumption by taking meter readings and keeping an eye out for any variations which could indicate an undetected water leak.
