Nelson Mandela Bay under the pump as water woes hit

A perfect storm of failing infrastructure, soaring demand, power outages and sabotage has plunged Nelson Mandela Bay into a water crisis, with large parts of the metro facing intermittent supply or none at all. In recent weeks, the metro has battled an overlapping series of setbacks from pipe bursts and pump failures to rolling power dips and reduced production at key treatment plants. As the municipality works to stabilise supply, officials warn that full recovery will take time, especially with a scheduled shutdown at the Nooitgedacht Water Treatment Works set to strain further.

Meanwhile, residents say even the most basic tasks — like taking a shower — have become an ordeal, while businesses are bleeding money just to secure enough water to stay operational. Nelson Mandela Bay is still losing the war on leaks, with more than half its potable water — 57.62%, or 73.71-million kilolitres — vanishing in 2024/2025. Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen said the metro was heading towards another water management crisis.

She said this was due to a combination of rapidly declining dam levels, the inability to rein in unaccounted water losses tracking at well over 50%, insufficient safety and security support deployed to water pump stations and the ongoing increase in water consumption levels. “All these water disruption issues highlight the reactive, fire-fighting approach to the management of the metro’s water infrastructure,” she said. Van Huyssteen said a structured programme had to be implemented to ensure proactive, planned and ongoing maintenance of the metro’s water infrastructure took place.

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“Aligned with this, sufficient capital expansion projects must be included in the plan to ensure that the infrastructure adjusts in line with population growth trends.” Nigel Newsome, who has been living in Bushy Park for 13 years, said the water issue had been getting worse. “We are in a double-storey house slightly elevated from the bottom of Bushy Park,” he said.

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