Atenkosi Plaatjie
Gift of the Givers says its borehole programme in Nelson Mandela Bay is yielding up to 5.5 million litres of water a day to the City.
Founder, Dr Imtiaaz Sooliman, was speaking at the Elizabeth Donkin Hospital in the Metro on Monday morning.
He said that over the past month, they'd sunk around 20 boreholes across the Metro.,
He said the borehole at the Hospital has a yield of 15 000 litres per hour, while another at Eltona School was producing 70 000 litres of water an hour.
Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu was also in attendance and said partnerships like those between the public and private sector are important.
"It is very important that we continue with partnerships of this kind, with NGO's and Business, as government can't do everything for the people of South Africa on its own. It needs to have these partnerships, not only in Nelson Mandela Bay, but everywhere else too."
Meanwhile, thousands of water leaks have now been repaired in a blitz on water leaks in the Metro.
This, in a joint operation between the Municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber through its Adopt a Leaks initiative.
Luvuyo Bangazi, spokesperson for the Metro's Water Saving Joint Operations Committee, says 5499 leaks were repaired in the last week of June and 1853 leaks were fixed in the first week of July.
He says a further 2367 leaks were closed last week.
Bangazi says that from the start of this week, contractors will begin work on repairing a further 712 leaks identified across the Metro.
Since the 'war on leaks' initiative started on the 25th of June - 9719 leaks have been fixed in Nelson Mandela Bay in a concerted effort to push back Day Zero.
