The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will soon be unable to treat the water it is providing to residents, as crippling chemical shortages loom.
These shortages came to light during an oversight inspection conducted in the Reservoir Hills area in Despatch, where I was informed that the Metro is fast running out of water treatment chemicals.
The contract to deliver these chemicals expired in December 2019, and was initially extended to June this year, but has not been extended or renewed since. As a result, the Municipality has had to make do with the little stock it has at its disposal.
This stock is now getting dangerously low, and still no service provider has been appointed!
Once the current stockpile of chemicals is used up, the Municipality will be unable to provide safe drinking water to its residents.
This issue is impacting all the water treatment works in Nelson Mandela Bay, which has resulted in the Metro currently not being able to make use of its full complement of water being received from the Nooitgedacht Low Level Water Scheme or the main supply dams.
This has already caused water interruptions across the City.
For months now the DA has been calling on the ANC-led Coalition of Corruption government to embark on emergency procurement processes for drought-related projects. The unfolding crisis pertaining to a lack of chemicals just highlights the incompetence of the Metro administration in dealing with the water crisis in the City.
The Covid-19 pandemic is sweeping through the Metro and, during this time, the provision of water and proper sanitation is of the utmost importance, but the health of residents is seemingly not a priority to those in charge of the City.
I will now write to the self-styled “interim” Mayor, Thsonono Buyeye, and request that emergency procurement processes are put in place to renew essential contracts.
The DA continues to fight to save the lives and livelihoods of the people of Nelson Mandela Bay. We can fix this mess – we have done it before and we can do it again.