THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMB) must immediately cease all extraction of water from the Kouga Dam.
If not, the Kouga Dam, currently at 10.38 % of capacity, will run dry by the end of June this year – leaving Hankey residents and farmers of the Gamtoos Valley without water.
This is according to Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks.
“The Kouga Dam will be at 5.6% of capacity by the end of June,” says Hendricks. “However, 3.1% of this total is dead capacity as it cannot be extracted from the dam.”
According to the DA EC Provincial Leader, Nqabba Bhanga, the DA will write to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), as well as the NMB’s Interim Executive Mayor and Acting City Manager, requesting them to act.
“They can counteract the shortfall created by not extracting water from the Kouga Dam by making use of demand reduction, water pressure reduction, and by maximizing extraction from the Nooitgedacht Scheme.”
The NMB currently extracts 60 megalitres of water a day from the Kouga Dam.
Hendricks says, “If we do not control the extraction from the Kouga Dam, we will run out of water within seven weeks.
“At a time when water is essential in the fight against Covid-19, a lack of water will be a double blow for residents.
“We are dealing with a health crisis that is soon going to turn into a humanitarian crisis – and there will for certain be deaths. If government does not intervene soon, they will have blood on their hands.”
In a further bid to secure additional water, Hendricks urged the DWS to have all drought projects declared essential services in order for Kouga Municipality to legally complete work in line with current legislation.
This includes equipping and connecting the viable boreholes to the existing water system: Hankey (seven), Humansdorp (seven), Jeffreys Bay (four), Patensie (two) and Oyster Bay (two).
According to Hendricks, the water yield to be obtained from the borehole at Soetkloof in Hankey, will be enough to supply the whole of Hankey with water, while Patensie has a holding dam that is currently at full capacity – sporting enough water for six months.
“Some R1.1 million will also be used to fix and upgrade dilapidated infrastructure in the area – all to save as much water as possible,” he says.
“We have furthermore reprioritised our Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funding and submitted a business plan to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), which was approved and we are waiting for them to support us.”
Overconsumption
According to the DWS, the NMB’s daily water consumption increased to 329 megalitres in March 2020.
“The Metro is, therefore, extracting more than the recommended 250 megalitres per day,” says Bhanga. “The main reason for this overconsumption is the Municipality’s total lack of communication to create public awareness.”
tion to create public awareness.”
With this in mind, the DA has launched the “Let’s defeat Day Zero in NMB!” webpage. This one-stop site, available at www.da.org.za/defeat-day-zero-in-nmb, provides critical water-related information.
