Why thousands of water leaks in Nelson Mandela Bay are unresolved
Staff and vehicle shortages in Bay metro’s water services sub-directorate have been blamed for delayed responses
04 December 2024 - 08:57
byAndisa Bonani
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Unfinished repairs on Van der Merwe Street, Kariega. Picture: EUGENE COETZEE
In the first half of 2024, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality struggled to address thousands of water leaks due to staff and vehicle shortages, with 9,169 unresolved cases carried over by the end of June.
The metro must fill 200 vacancies and secure 97 vehicles in the water services sub-directorate to solve the problem.
The details were included in a report tabled at a municipal public accounts committee meeting on Tuesday.
According to the report, the city has a budget shortfall of R50m from its operating budget and R100m from its capital budget.
In the interim, the metro uses 38 municipal teams to deal with losses and 200 “water ambassadors” to look for leaks, report them and conduct awareness campaigns.
“The municipality has appointed staff to deal with the operations and maintenance of infrastructure to improve efficiency and service delivery,” the report said.
Each team included a plumber, an artisan plumber and two general workers for bulk and distribution leaks and repairs.
The report highlighted that about 1,400km of the metro’s 4,700km pipeline network was more than 50 years old.
In the last half of 2023, the metro had, on a monthly average, carried over 1,285 leaks.
A total of 17,295 leaks were repaired during the period.
There is huge apathy to report leaks in disadvantaged townships, which necessitates the [water ambassadors’] intervention
Infrastructure and engineering acting executive director Joseph Tsatsire
However, in the first half of 2024, this increased to a monthly average of 5,030 leaks carried over.
Only 7,409 leaks were repaired during the period.
The highest carry-over figure of 9,169 leaks was recorded in December 2023.
The report does not give a reason for the surge in leaks being carried over monthly since January.
DA councillor Jason Engelbrecht said the city’s internal teams were addressing fewer water leaks each week than necessary.
“There are 38 teams, and 300 water leaks attended to every week, which is less than 10 leaks per team.
“We are told there is an external team that does the same work but the internal team is required to do 1,200 leaks a month, so I don’t understand how this works.”
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom wanted to know the city’s short-term plan for dealing with ageing infrastructure.
“The report talks about our pipeline being more than 50 years old. What are the priorities in terms of timelines on how we will deal with this?”
Responding to councillors, infrastructure and engineering acting executive director Joseph Tsatsire said interventions were made to ensure leaks were reported.
“Depending on where you are, we deploy the necessary interventions,” he said.
“There is huge apathy to report leaks in disadvantaged townships, which necessitates the [water ambassadors’] intervention.
“Regarding the 38 teams, there’s not always a linear outcome in terms of production on a daily basis. There’s quite a number of operating inefficiencies in our system.
“We’re dealing with issues related to the fleet, which hamper the production of the teams but we are dealing with them,” Tsatsire said.
He said the city had a capital project with an annual budget of R50m that was used to replace pipes.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Why thousands of water leaks in Nelson Mandela Bay are unresolved
Staff and vehicle shortages in Bay metro’s water services sub-directorate have been blamed for delayed responses
In the first half of 2024, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality struggled to address thousands of water leaks due to staff and vehicle shortages, with 9,169 unresolved cases carried over by the end of June.
The metro must fill 200 vacancies and secure 97 vehicles in the water services sub-directorate to solve the problem.
The details were included in a report tabled at a municipal public accounts committee meeting on Tuesday.
According to the report, the city has a budget shortfall of R50m from its operating budget and R100m from its capital budget.
In the interim, the metro uses 38 municipal teams to deal with losses and 200 “water ambassadors” to look for leaks, report them and conduct awareness campaigns.
“The municipality has appointed staff to deal with the operations and maintenance of infrastructure to improve efficiency and service delivery,” the report said.
Each team included a plumber, an artisan plumber and two general workers for bulk and distribution leaks and repairs.
The report highlighted that about 1,400km of the metro’s 4,700km pipeline network was more than 50 years old.
In the last half of 2023, the metro had, on a monthly average, carried over 1,285 leaks.
A total of 17,295 leaks were repaired during the period.
However, in the first half of 2024, this increased to a monthly average of 5,030 leaks carried over.
Only 7,409 leaks were repaired during the period.
The highest carry-over figure of 9,169 leaks was recorded in December 2023.
The report does not give a reason for the surge in leaks being carried over monthly since January.
DA councillor Jason Engelbrecht said the city’s internal teams were addressing fewer water leaks each week than necessary.
“There are 38 teams, and 300 water leaks attended to every week, which is less than 10 leaks per team.
“We are told there is an external team that does the same work but the internal team is required to do 1,200 leaks a month, so I don’t understand how this works.”
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom wanted to know the city’s short-term plan for dealing with ageing infrastructure.
“The report talks about our pipeline being more than 50 years old. What are the priorities in terms of timelines on how we will deal with this?”
Responding to councillors, infrastructure and engineering acting executive director Joseph Tsatsire said interventions were made to ensure leaks were reported.
“Depending on where you are, we deploy the necessary interventions,” he said.
“There is huge apathy to report leaks in disadvantaged townships, which necessitates the [water ambassadors’] intervention.
“Regarding the 38 teams, there’s not always a linear outcome in terms of production on a daily basis. There’s quite a number of operating inefficiencies in our system.
“We’re dealing with issues related to the fleet, which hamper the production of the teams but we are dealing with them,” Tsatsire said.
He said the city had a capital project with an annual budget of R50m that was used to replace pipes.
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