TOGETHER with the Department of Water and Sanitation, the City has invested over R1.2 billion to implement a number of water augmentation and drought mitigation projects across the City to mitigate the effects of the drought on residents and cushion the City’s economy,” said Odendaal.
“These include upgrading of bulk infrastructure, addressing bottlenecks within the distribution network and fast-tracking of emergency augmentation water supplies.
Last Thursday the executive mayor shared information on the progress of 10 of the municipality’s most important projects currently underway. “By the end of March 2023, nine of these projects would have been brought online,” he said.
“The most significant of these was the completion of the Nooitgedacht Water Treatment Works: Phase 3 which has ensured an additional 70 Ml of water from the Gariep Dam being available to the City daily.
“By the end of March 2023, most of the borehole projects that the City has embarked on will be online adding 30 Ml to our system.
“We are thereby diversifying our sources of potable water as a means of mitigating the effects of not only the current but also future droughts.
“These groundwater schemes will reduce abstraction from the severely stressed western dams, thereby preserving what little storage remains and developing a sustainable water supply resource for the future. The following sites have been identified for borehole extraction: Coegakop, Bushy Park, St Georges Park, Fairview, Fort Nottingham, and Glendinning.
The above is a brief outline of progress with efforts to fight day zero in Nelson Mandela Bay. Odendaal called on all residents to also do their part by reducing consumption significantly. “The only way we can successfully overcome this crisis and fight the drought is by working together – one drop goes a long way,” he said.
