Nelson Mandela Bay’s water department is said to have enlisted the help of the Japanese and a team of engineers to help with the city’s water leaks.

According to Herald Live, at a budget and treasury committee meeting, infrastructure and engineering executive director Walter Shaidi said the metro had made contact with the national department of water affairs, which then put the city in contact with the ambassador of Japan.

“Japan’s water losses are less than 5% so they clearly have a handle on how to deal with the problem.”

Shaidi said the Japanese had a water leaks project running in Ethekwini municipality and that a team from the metro would go and look at how the project was getting on, and if it was successful, implement some of those strategies in the Bay.

Due to the drought, the Bay is running out of water. The municipality’s water losses figure was 43.9% in the 2018/2019 financial year.

The report attributed the city’s water losses to leaks, theft and metering inaccuracies.

While addressing councillors, Shaidi, said the city’s political leadership and acting municipal manager Noxolo Nqwazi had a fruitful meeting with the Bay’s business chamber and a group of highly trained engineers.

“They indicated they want to work with us in terms of addressing the water leaks and said they did not want to be paid.

“We’re meeting with them in the next two weeks, and they will come and assess our water systems and see where we have bottlenecks,” Shaidi said.

He told councillors the current staff employed by his department would not be able to deal with the city’s leaks without assistance.

Source: Herald Live