Nelson Mandela Bay is headed towards a disaster if water conserving efforts are not stepped up, with the dam levels reaching a combined average of 24% this week.

Residents could be saddled with further restrictions if the situation continues unabated.

Mayor Athol Trollip yesterday issued a warning that while the Nooitgedacht Low Level Water Scheme provided additional water, not all supply sources could be supplemented from the same water system.

"With only 10.37% of recorded water supply, Kouga Dam is the most affected, while Churchill Dam languishes at 18.08%," Trollip said.

"The other dams, namely Groendal and Impofu, have a recorded supply of 48.37% and 36.81%, respectively," he said.

Trollip said this was a clear sign of hard times ahead.

The municipality has appealed to residents to strengthen water conservation efforts.

"With no prediction of meaningful rains soon, the new water levels call for a renewed sense of commitment from all metro residents, businesses and other relevant stakeholders.

"While we acknowledge the impact the municipality's awareness campaigns have had since their initial roll-out, the metro continues to experience high water consumption from both domestic users and businesses.

"As the administration, we wish to make a clarion call on residents to assist in preventing a disaster by monitoring their household consumption.

"We also appreciate the vigilance from residents who are consistently reporting water leaks. Through their efforts, we have been able to repair 5938 water leaks during the first three months of 2018," Trollip said.

Meanwhile, in a report to be discussed by the infrastructure and engineering portfolio committee today, executive director Walter Shaidi wrote that the city has responded to 41170 water complaints between July 12017 and March 31 2018.

"Of these complaints, 35537 were completed and 5597 remain outstanding as a backlog," Shaidi wrote.

He wrote that the municipality received on average 150 complaints on a daily basis.

The response time for dealing with complaints vary. Burst pipes are attended to within 24 hours while minor leaks take between 10 and 15 working days to fix.

Shaidi wrote that this was exacerbated by the unavailability of
resources to attend to the complaints.

"The biggest factor is the lack of sufficient maintenance teams to respond rapidly to reported complaints," Shaidi wrote.

Infrastructure and engineering portfolio head Masixole Zinto said they had filled in 39 out of 51 vacancies in the plumbing division.

Zinto said the aim was to fill all the remaining 12 vacancies at the start of the next financial year.