ABOUT 29% of Nelson Mandela Bay’s water supply is lost through leaks and burst pipes.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Businesses Chamber and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality teamed up to fix water leaks, with local businesses volunteering their resources and services to speed up the process.
Business chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen said: “We cannot allow the issues which brought us to the point of this water crisis to distract us. Rather, we should turn our energy into positive action.
“By standing together and co-ordinating our efforts, we can make the greatest impact in the shortest time.”
The most immediate priority was to address a backlog of 3 500 water leaks, which account for 29% of the metro’s water consumption and have seen the municipality struggle to keep up as new leaks are reported almost as fast as existing ones are repaired.
The metro’s water crisis Joint Operations Centre (JOC) spokesman Luvuyo Bangazi said: “The partnership signalled a commitment by government and business to work together with a common purpose to avert the water crisis.
“This means we have more boots on the ground to reverse the backlog of water leaks.”
Bangazi said areas with high concentrations of water leaks will be prioritised and a consulting engineer will be appointed to oversee the project.
As part of the water crisis mitigation measures, Gift of the Givers is drilling boreholes around the metro to ensure improved accessibility of water for communities.
