Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor, Eugene Johnson, has made another impassioned plea to residents to reduce water consumption over the Festive period as visitors are expected to flock to the Metro for the Festive Season.
She told a media briefing on Wednesday that the City's tourism office forecasts an 80% occupancy rate in hotels, B&B's and other accommodation facilities over this period, excluding so-called walk-ins and last minute bookings which she said would place additional strain on water resources.
As of Wednesday morning, the four main supply dams were at 18.4% of the total combined capacity.
"We have already engaged with the hospitality industry to advise all their guests of our water restrictions and that they monitor water usage," Johnson said.
She said the Metro was "positive" that by the middle of next year its water augmentation initiatives, would produce enough water to "reach acceptable levels of water security for our residents and businesses alike."
"But, before we reach that point we have to stretch our current water supply as far as possible to avoid widespread inconvenience and a struggle to access water. We have a budget of R363 million for borehole drilling, pump station upgrades, the implementation of pipelines and other critical initiatives. This excludes the money required to complete Nooitgedacht Phase Three."
Johnson said the Metro also informed the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation that it was willing and able to take over the Nooitgedacht project, and requested official notification and funding for this.
She said the City must reduce consumption to avoid dams running dry before May next year.
"But, if we reduce consumption now, we can stretch the water in our dams until our distribution and augmentation projects reach a critical point of completion in April 2022, so that we are able to distribute enough water across the Metro, even when our supply dams are empty," the mayor said.
"My office will lean heavily on the Acting City Manager and MMC Stag Mitchell's team to ensure that we remind the Department of the urgency of the matter. It is literally a matter of life and death," Johnson said.
