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The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber says the add-on cost of doing business in the Metro is rising exponentially due to the ongoing water crisis.
CEO Denise van Huyssteen says companies have had to bring in water tankers, harvest rainwater, dig for boreholes and set up recycling capabilities.
She says some water-dependent businesses have had to suspend operations and in some instances, put staff on short time due to water shortages.
Van Huyssteen says that although companies have to use water sparingly, the municipality is still mandated to deliver basic services.
"When there are instances where it is anticipated that water outages will occur, the municipality should timeously and transparently communicate this so that businesses can implement alternative arrangements to reduce impact in their operations."
"In addition to the outages there are frequent issues around water pressures levels being too low which means some machinery cannot operate thus impacting on the continuity of production," she added.
Last week the Municipality informed the Metro that they will require a 24-hour water shutdown to perform the final connection of the Nooitgedagt Water Treatment Works.
During Tuesday's shutdown, the Metro was struck by a widespread thunderstorm which they said affected the electricity supply to the Grassridge Water Treatment Works.
Residents, especially in the Western Suburbs of Gqeberha say they have been without water for more than a week, even before the shutdown was scheduled.
The Metro's latest statement said that the system was recovering slowly adding that the Chelsea reservoir still remains depleted at 0%.
