Algoa Water Supply System remains below average, residents urged to use water sparingly
The Algoa Water Supply System which is meant to supply water to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality remains below average at 14.9% from 14.8% recorded in the previous week. This is according to a weekly status of dam levels report issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation in the Eastern Cape earlier this week.
Groendal Dam on the Swartkops River has recorded 20.9% from last week’s 21.0%. Kouga Dam which supplies water to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro remains unchanged at a low 16.5%, this time last year it stood at 4.0%.
Loerie Dam on the Loerie Spruit River has slightly increased from last week’s 46.1% to 51.1% this week. Impofu Dam is at 10.1%, Nqweba Dam has lowered at 5.9% and Nuwejaars Dam has also declined to 4.0%.
The department has since reiterated its plea to residents to use water sparingly as the Metro’s dam levels continue to decline on a weekly basis, despite some light showers experienced in parts of the Metro sometime last week.
Meanwhile, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro has scheduled several maintenance operations in various parts of the city in the current week which are aimed to reduce water losses. The planned maintenance entails a complete shutdown of water supply in Cotswold, Burt Drive - Ward 12 on Tuesday, 26 July 2022.
The shutdown will take place in Kini Bay - Ward 40 on Wednesday, 27 July, and Kwaford Village -Wards 14, 17 and 18 on Thursday, 28 July 2022. Water supply will be shut off between 08h00 and 17h00 as and when operations on the infrastructure take place.
The department is also rolling out several interventions to assist the Metro to avert taps from completely drying out as a result of the ongoing drought effects which have resulted in severe water shortages.
The interventions include, among others, the completion of the refurbishment of the Olifantskop Reservoir which will augment water to the Metro by 45 Mega Litres per day.
Other water infrastructure upgrades include those taking place at the Motherwell and Stanford Road pump stations to increase to a transfer capacity of 120 Mega Litres per day and 135 Mega Litres per day respectively.
The Motherwell Pump station has a transfer capacity of 90 Ml/day, whilst the Stanford Road pump station is limited to around 90 Ml/day due to 500mm and 700mm diameter pipelines.
The upgrades at the pump stations are done to supplement the additional available water drawn from the Gariep Dam in Free State, through the Nooitgedacht Water Scheme and transferred to the Metro’s western supply zones.
Source: Government of South Africa