Johannesburg — South Africans living in the Eastern Cape are counting down to"Day Zero" when the taps in the Nelson Mandela Bay area will run dry. Experts say climate change induced drought has left reservoirs almost empty, while municipal mismanagement has city authorities scrambling to plug more than 3,000 leaking water pipes.
Sixty-eight-year-old grandma of five Virginia Kima lives in KwaNobuhle, a poor township in a region named after South Africa's greatest hero and first Black president, Nelson Mandela Bay."Sometimes we stay about two or three days without water," she said."When there's no water we do go to other areas and fetch water."The bay area is suffering a critical water shortage.
At the current rate of use, two major reservoirs could run out completely in a matter of days. If that happens, 40 percent of the city of Gqeberha, with a population of about a million people, would be affected. Luvuyo Bangazi, spokesman for the government committee dealing with the shortage, told VOA that authorities are racing to prevent"Day Zero," when they run out of water.
"With regards to the exact date of Day Zero, you know we really cannot have such a date in the calendar because there are lots of moving parts," he said."We are doing everything we can in our power to avoid taps running dry.""We haven't had good rains for more than seven years and we've had a sharp increase in water consumption from across sectors, be it residential, business, or other," he said.