Local officials warned on Thursday that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in South Africa is rapidly running out of water as local dams dry up due to a severe drought.
During a public information session, Mayor Eugene Johnson declared, “Nelson Mandela Bay is undergoing a drought calamity, and it is likely to grow a lot worse for the long term.”
“We’ve been talking about this problem for years, and now it’s Day Zero,” she remarked.
The southern coastal city, Africa’s automotive industry heartland, which has a population of over 1.2 million people and is one of South Africa’s eight metropolitan municipalities, has issued several warnings in the last year that local dam levels are “critically low.”
According to Barry Martin, the city’s senior director for water and sanitation, local dams in the region only had 2.8 percent of their water remaining as of May 4, with the second largest dam Impofu having only 1.28 percent useable capacity.
He said that the remaining 13.05 percent of water in the city’s largest dam, Kouga, is set aside for agricultural use, and that several parts of the city, including the central business district, may run out of water by the end of June.
“We’re urging our inhabitants to save water because if you don’t have water to drink, wash your clothes, or flush your toilet, things are going to get serious,” the mayor added.
According to weather forecast statistics, the city may be without rain for a month.
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