Major Nelson Mandela Bay water pipeline under repair

A badly corroded pipeline in Nelson Mandela Bay is being replaced and municipal officials say this will put paid to the frequent water outages affecting the western part of the Bay.

On Monday, acting mayor Thsonono Buyeye visited Joe Slovo West, where construction is under way to upgrade the Motherwell-Chelsea 500mm pipeline.

The replacement of part of the pipeline was part of the metro’s broader plans to find long-term solutions to the water supply challenges caused by low dam levels and high consumption, Buyeye said.

He was accompanied to the site by council speaker Buyelwa Mafaya and water and sanitation director Barry Martin.

Martin said the municipality had identified a critical area of the pipeline that had reached its lifespan.

He said the pipeline has been repaired a number of times and its problems were a result of ageing infrastructure.

Martin said the pipeline, which was almost 60 years old, had corroded over time and had been taken out of commission with the intention to rehabilitate it in future.

“As a result of the drought we are in, we need the extra capacity of this pipe so that we can transfer more water from [the] Nooitgedacht  [water scheme] through to the Greenbushes area into the western side of the metro.

“With Nooitgedacht running with the treatment facility, we are able to treat as much 180 to 190 megalitres a day, but because of the bottleneck of the pipeline that is not fully functional we can only transfer about 160 to 170ML.

“We have identified the weakest part on this pipe. We are planning to bring our teams in and do all extra repairs and hopefully by the end of August we will have this fully commissioned.”

Martin said once the pipeline was completed the department would check for further leaks before integrating it into the transfer system.

Buyeye urged residents to save water or use it sparingly where possible, saying the metro was still in the throes of a serious drought.

“Our dam levels are very low and the rain is not coming. We need to use what we have cautiously, knowing that this is all we have.”

Buyeye also spoke about urgently finding a replacement for infrastructure and engineering mayoral committee member Andile Lungisa, who resigned at the weekend.  

He said this was crucial as the infrastructure and engineering directorate was key to basic service delivery.

As of Monday, according to the metro, the combined level of the Bay’s five dams was at 17.46%, with Churchill at 52%, Groendal at 27%, Impofu at 17%, Kouga at 7%, and Loerie at 38.5%.

- HeraldLIVE