Intermittent water supply for large parts of Nelson Mandela Bay

Nelson Mandela Bay residents can expect continued intermittent water supply as the Emerald Hill reservoir runs dry.

In a statement on Friday the municipality said the reservoir fed Walmer Heights, Miramar, parts of Lovemore Heights, Charlo, Fairview and surrounds.

“The reticulation system is seriously compromised and intermittent supply is going to be experienced throughout the metro.

“Water tankers will be deployed. However, given the extent of disruption it will be impractical to deploy tankers in all these areas.”

The municipality said the Chelsea reservoir was only at 11% capacity and areas including Kabega, Greenbushes, Rowallan Park, Hunter’s Retreat, Westering and Linton Grange, among others, would also remain without water.

On Thursday infrastructure and engineering head Mongameli Bobani warned that the city’s daily consumption exceeded what was available.

“The current water consumption is about 290 megalitres per day and exceeds the available 268 megalitres per day.”

The northern areas has since last weekend experienced water outages, and to feed these areas the supply to the Chelsea reservoir that feeds the western areas up to Gelvandale and Malabar was reduced.

“The system should have recovered overnight, but one of the bulk pipes at the Nooitgedaght pump station burst and caused a reduction in available water.”

Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said updates on when the water supply was expected to be restored would be provided as they became available.

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