WATER WOES: Nelson Mandela Bay needs nearly R1bn to tackle water losses and ageing pipes

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> The metro is battling thousands of water-leak complaints while some communities go without water for weeks, and failing wastewater infrastructure is sending raw sewage into rivers, estuaries and the sea.

With up to 1,000 water-related complaints received weekly, the Nelson Mandela Bay metro requires R426-million to repair leaks and a further R495-million to embark on a pipe replacement programme in a bid to curb water losses that run up to 60%.

The City is currently battling a more than 5,000 water leak complaints backlog, as 4,700km of its water pipeline needs replacement . Water outages, which often leave residents without water for weeks, have also become increasingly common.

The City’s ailing sanitation infrastructure is equally strained, with sewage spills due to malfunctioning pump stations and wastewater treatment plants that result in raw sewage flowing into beaches, estuaries and riverine areas.

The water and sanitation crisis in the city was placed under the microscope by the South African Human Rights Commission in July, after an investigation report described the result as a material public-health risk that has an impact on human rights.

Now, the Nelson Mandela Bay Civil Society Coalition has put together a report named the CSC Metro Rough Guide on the municipality’s wastewater services. The report was released on 25 August.

The report says the metro’s wastewater system is failing, with continual spills polluting the environment and threatening public health and livelihoods, natural ecosystems, the local economy and the environmental inheritance of future generations.

“It is a common sight in townships to see stepping-stones across algae-infested sewage waters streaming down roads, to have homes and factories flooded, stormwater drains dumping sewage into rivers and across beaches of the bay, and the air continually smelling of sewage,” the report reads.

The report says the Driftsands Wastewater Treatment Works, previously considered the metro’s “gold standard” plant, has been largely non-operational for the past three to four years after thieves stole its underground electricity supply cable.

More recently, internal cables serving plant equipment were also stolen, despite 24-hour security.

As a result, the report says, raw sewage flows through a 3km sand canal and is discharged into the sea from the rocks between the Willows and Willow Grove resorts.

The Cape Recife plant, which previously discharged raw sewage into the sea, has improved following recent upgrades, the report says. However, its settlement ponds are under threat from an advancing sand corridor. A water-recycling project designed to supply one megalitre a day to Pine Lodge, Nelson Mandela University and Humewood Golf Course is also inactive because of failures at the plant and in the conveyance system.

The city’s largest pump station, the Creek, with eight pumps, receives wastewater from Summerstrand, Humewood, Central, Korsten, and Westering. The facility has been subject to regular cable theft.