Section 63 Intervention team successes and challenges
Section 63 Intervention team successes and challenges
On 3 June 2022, at a media briefing in Nelson Mandela Bay, the Minister of Water & Sanitation publicly announced this intervention, to address water supply challenges which created the risk of city taps running dry. The minister appointed the Amatola Water Board (AWB) as its implementing agent, and announced a range of actions agreed between the Minister and the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM). AWB was to oversee the execution of these actions, and would work closely with the Mayor to ensure blockages be removed. Through this process, the CSP’s support was brought back to the City to assist with the intervention.
At the start of June, local dam levels were at 12.3% combined storage, today they are at 18.3%, because of some rainfall, as well as adhering to new DWS water restrictions imposed from July. The 7-day average water produced at the start of the intervention was recorded at 275 MLD, and today reflects at 273 MLD. There is a considerable difference between the two: on 3 June, average 30-day production at Nooitgedagt was at 166 MLD, whereas it now stands at 185 MLD. For the past week, it has increased to average over 190, and is set to produce more than 200 MLD by the end of the month. This is important as it means less water is used from local dams. Also, the transferring infrastructure such as Kwanobuhle pumpstation is now operational.
When comparing the volume of water available from local dams, this has increased from just 16 days at the beginning of June, to a minimum of 175 days until failure at the first dam. In terms of an intervention to avoid Day zero, this intervention has proved to be successful.
On 23 August 2022, the Minister of DWS convened a workshop on “Creating Water Resilience” in Nelson Mandela Bay to deal with the more medium- and long-term perspectives. Part of the agenda dealt with the transformation of NMBM into a water resilient city, with presentations on international perspective on building resilience, and creating a sustainable water business. The day after the workshop, the City Manager met with World Bank representatives, AWB chairperson and the CSP, and agreed that the City wanted to implement a turnaround strategy to create resilience in its Water & Sanitation Business. This is a major achievement for the municipality and its residents, to ensure a resilient water future and improved sanitation service.
In summary, the successes that the intervention has led since the start of the intervention include:
- Accelerating the move of Impofu barge which stretched available water on the Kromme system from 16 days to 375 days;
- Working with the provincial DWS to ensure restrictions are developed for the year, which are reasonable to its users while ensuring that the local dams are given the maximum opportunity to recover;
- Furthering work towards transforming the water & sanitation business to a resilient professional and reliable service entity;
- An improved communication strategy was rolled out in collaboration with NMBM and MBDA;
- Facilitating work done by NGO’s like Gift of the Givers and private sector stakeholders like Coca-Cola Beverages SA on drilling boreholes at properties around the metro, properties not owned by the municipality;
- Eliminating the backlog of leaks in July, and immediately attending to new ones.
- Encouraging allowing private sector support, such as the Business Chamber leak fixing and the Strategic Water Partnership Network MOU;
- Creating pressure to accelerate municipal processes;
- Continuing the downward trend of water demand, and
- Supporting water augmentation projects
The intervention team’s approach has been collaborative and working in partnership with the City to identify and unblock bottlenecks. The experts in the intervention time have been using their experience and skills to amongst others; advise; share best practices; anticipate challenges and propose common solutions.
The intervention team does not have control of NMBMs budget. Nor can it procure, or force accelerated procurement of services. By monitoring the progress made and providing weekly reports, the intervention team continues to highlight issues to the municipality.
The Intervention Team working in close collaboration with the Political Oversight Committee; City officials and organized business has contributed a great deal in moving Day Zero much further from becoming a reality. There is more to be done and we need to guard against throwing the baby with the bath water.
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