The Bitou Municipality is in a race against time to avert a total water supply collapse, with its primary storage dam at a critically low level and residents under stringent restrictions. The crisis, which came to a head in early January, has exposed deep divisions between local authorities and the community over preparedness and long-term planning.
The Roodefontein Dam, which supplies water from the Piesang River to the municipality, is currently sitting at just over 32% capacity. Officials warn this translates to approximately 50 days of water if consumption is not urgently reduced.
The municipality’s Manager for Water and Sanitation outlined the tipping point, stating, “The situation… around January the 4th became a critical situation because the flow in the river dropped to about 90 litres per second which meant we had to stop extraction from the Keurbooms River.” The municipality was forced to switch to its backup supply, highlighting systemic vulnerabilities.
“The disparity between the infrastructure development and the population growth is the major cause of the current crisis,” said a spokesperson for the Plettenberg Bay Ratepayers Association, which has rated the municipality’s preparedness as “poor.” The association contends the situation, aggravated by a localized drought and lack of a sufficient backup resource for the Keurbooms River, was “complex but not unexpected.”
“So the solutions have been long on the cards but never implemented,” the Association’s spokesperson added, calling for the development of a major alternate water source or buffer storage.
Frustration is mounting among residents, with some pointing to infrastructure failures as a key aggravating factor. One resident questioned the municipality’s follow-through on leakage detection, stating, “What happened… over the years the municipality did detect that there was a huge household leakage and they’ve trained people… and what happened to those people today? Those people are unemployed.”
In response to the crisis, Level 4 water restrictions have been implemented across Plettenberg Bay. The municipality says it is ramping up meter audits and public awareness campaigns to drive down consumption.
Officials also point to emergency measures now in place. “From the desalination plant we can extract around 1.6 megalitres per day. We have four boreholes operational and we can extract around 2.5 megalitres per day,” the municipal water manager said, bringing total emergency supply capacity to about 9 megalitres per day.
Looking forward, the municipality acknowledges the need for improved catchment management and has cited the restoration of the Roodefontein pipeline as a priority. However, with dam levels perilously low and the community’s trust frayed, the immediate challenge remains preventing a “Day Zero” scenario in the heart of the Garden Route.