Community forced off grid in drought-stricken Nelson Mandela Bay

Members of the small Jewish community in the Eastern Cape municipal area of Nelson Mandela Bay (which includes Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth), are among thousands who can no longer rely on municipal running water.

After many years of drought and mismanagement, most are getting by with water from tanks or boreholes that they filter, or buying bottled water. While it’s tough, the Jewish community is more focused on the disadvantaged in the area who are suffering much more.

“This is very much a crisis. Friends reliant on municipal water report very low water pressure in their homes, and many suburbs go a few days with no water at all,” says one Jewish woman from Gqeberha, who asked to remain anonymous for her own protection. A number of community members asked not to be named as the gaps between those who can access water and those who cannot widens by the day.

“We have put in a large water system with three tanks to store and purify our own borehole water,” she says. “The UV-treated water then goes into the house. As long as there’s underground water, we won’t have a problem. Our dysfunctional municipality could have acted years ago, when the drought began, to alleviate the water shortage.

“Certain areas of Gqeberha get water from the Nooitgedacht treatment scheme, which pumps water from the Gariep Dam. They will always have water,” she says. “We get mixed messages from the municipality. On the one hand, it says Gqeberha will never truly run dry, on the other, we’re urged to use water sparingly as our dams are empty. In theory, the Nooitgedacht water can be funnelled into reservoirs all over Gqeberha to avoid certain suburbs running dry.

“Obviously, we’re very lucky to be able to afford our water system,” she says. “My cleaning lady in New Brighton township had no water at all for a whole weekend, reliant only on rain water from a tank I had installed for her.”

She emphasises that “the majority of Jews in Gqeberha are elderly, and on tight budgets. They will certainly suffer if the taps run dry. I don’t know what the future holds. Fields of taps have been built all over Gqeberha. How one goes there to fill up a drum and then lift it into a car, I don’t know. I don’t even know if the taps are functional. I have yet to see anyone using them.”

Another community member, who also asked not to be named, lives in a complex that has sunk its own borehole. The water is potable [drinkable], but not connected to the mains, “so we have to go with buckets to the collection point, or to the water tankers supplied by the municipality”.

But she emphasises that “this is easier than for those living in the township areas, where the poorer communities suffer the double whammy of no water and no electricity. Little or no effort is made to alleviate their suffering. I have the financial means to buy bottled water. Who is fighting to address the needs of people who don’t have these basic necessities every day?” Most Jews in the city have electricity, with prevalent load shedding.

“We have low water pressure for three days at a time,” she says. “Many in the poorer communities have no water for weeks. Small businesses in Gqeberha are buckling under the strain.”

Load shedding worsens the situation because it means the little water that is available cannot be pumped to various parts of the city. An elderly Jewish woman speaking anonymously says she also lives in a complex that has gone off the grid with a borehole and tanks connected to pipes.

“The municipality has said that the quality of the municipal water is suspect. So some are adding chemicals to the water they draw from boreholes,” she says. “There are people in our community who can’t afford to go off the grid or to buy water, and there’s a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety. I’ve lived in Gqeberha for many years and when I arrived, it was a vibrant, large Jewish community. Today, it’s very small and people are despondent.”

“My suburb had no water the whole of yesterday,” says Elaine Racussen, referring to Thursday, 16 March. “People have to plan ahead. We harvest rain water from tanks and borehole water.

“We are concerned for the majority of people who don’t have these extra facilities,” says Racussen, who is part of a small Union of Jewish Women branch in the city trying to help where it can. “People have to buy water to wash. A welcome idea is for motorists to fill two-litre bottles of water and hand them over to those in need at traffic lights.”

Michelle Brown says that she and her husband drink bottled water. “We’re managing because we have to. We had no water for three days last week and used water we had put aside. We have been lucky enough to buy a JoJo [water-storage] tank, but there are many who cannot buy one.”

She doesn’t plan to leave. “This is my home, where we brought up our children, where we work. Sometimes you have to make a plan, and our mayor has called on all of us to do just that.”

The water situation is “100% a crisis, but we have to manage it,” she says. “We all have to work together to reduce our daily water usage. We all have to fight this battle for the sake of our city and every citizen. If you visit us, please be aware of the water crisis.”

Phyllis Price lives in a “granny flat” at her son’s house, which is completely off the grid. “We drink water stored in JoJo tanks that’s then filtered,” she says. However, this system is still dependent on rain, and they sometimes have to buy bottled water to drink. She says people sometimes ask to shower at their house. At times, they have had to take water from their swimming pool to flush the toilets.

Janice Lazarus has a borehole “which we use for the pool and garden. Last year, we installed water tanks with filters for all our household needs. But last week, there was a leak in one of the pipes. Not only did we lose all the water from the tanks, but we also received a water bill for R25 000! So it cost us an absolute fortune every time we switched on the municipal water.

“We had someone come to my house with special equipment to check where the leak was coming from. The plumber came the following day and managed to sort it out. We then had to buy water which was very expensive. Thank G-d we now have water again.”