Nelson Mandela Bay Day Zero: ‘We will run out of water before Christmas’ By ESTELLE ELLIS EstelleEllis
Nelson Mandela Bay metro is hurtling towards the worst-case scenario. With only weeks of water left in the metro’s dams, its Plan B is failing because of delays in the completion of the Nooitgedacht Water Scheme – and yet residents have not reduced their water consumption.
The dams supplying Nelson Mandela Bay also supply the popular summer holiday destinations of Jeffreys Bay, Cape St Francis and St Francis Bay. Even in the municipal building, Kaiser said, she was the only person who did not flush the toilet unless it was absolutely necessary. The metro’s water scheme also relies on pumps and not gravity as in Cape Town, leading to water problems during load shedding and power outages.
“But even in Cape Town we didn’t have enough money to do all the work we wanted to do on water infrastructure.” It was a pity that the municipality had started a campaign to restrict residents to 50 litres a day three years ago – by now, everybody was tired of hearing it. “People think we were crying wolf.”