Humanitarian organisation Gift of The Givers is sending five truckloads of bottled water to the Makana Municipality to assist the region which is currently gripped by a dire water shortage.
The main Settler's Dam outside Grahamstown is at a mere 13% of capacity and while large parts of the Eastern Cape received good rains overnight, a mere 0.8 millimetres was measure at the city up until eight o'clock on Monday morning.
Makana Municipality Mayor Mzukisi Mpahlwa announced on Saturday that residents from the East side of town would spend at least five days without water supply due to the high content of mud in the water released from the Fish River.
He added that municipal water trucks had already been dispatched to various distribution points around the town.
Gift of the Givers founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, says residents have appealed to the organisation for help.
"Eighty thousand people are affected and we are also sending in our specialist hydrologists to survey the area with the possibility of sinking more boreholes. This would mean there would be something more sustainable whilst the Makana Municipality is busy with the upgrading of the water facilities which may take another 18 months to complete."
In the other major centres, George received 6.2 millimetres, the Port Elizabeth airport 12.8, Uitenhage 19.6 and East London 15.8.
In the interior, 44.6 millimetres was measure at Graaff-Reinet.
There was not much rain in the catchment areas, but enough to lift the Churchill Dam back up to 100% of capacity.
The largest of Nelson Mandela Bay's main supply dams, the Kouga, currently sits at 49.08%, the Impofu at 30.98% and the Groendal outside Uitenhage at 57.90%.
The Groendal has been boosted by 16.7 mm of rain being measured at Swartkops.
The total combined capacity of the Metro's main supply dams is currently at 48.97% of total combined capacity.
