Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality resorted to holding prayer sessions last week to call for rain as it endures the worst drought in its history.
The sessions were held at various locations throughout the week but the main event on Sunday took place at Gelvandale Stadium in Gqeberha.
Nelson Mandela Bay residents heeded the municipality's call and came out in large numbers to pray for rain.
The city's combined dam levels are currently at 13.83% and just over 8% is available for use.
The municipality's Constituency Services political head, Rano Kayser, said he believes divine intervention and prayer might save the city.
"There was soft rain throughout the week after all the prayers we held during the week, but what the Lord wants is for us first as a collective; residents, stakeholders, politicians and religious leaders to come together and ask him for rain and humble ourselves," he said.
Impofu Dam, the metro's largest catchment dam, is now so low at 6.87% that water can no longer be pumped from it -- the dam was officially decommissioned by Mayor Retief Odendaal last weekend.
Odendaal said if there is not some sort of intervention, the city will not survive this disaster. "If we're going to be honest, no man made creation can deliver us out of this disaster. If God doesn't send us rain we will never survive."
The metro continues to experience an intermittent water supply, especially in the western parts of the city supplied by Churchill Dam, which Eskom initially refused to exempt from the ongoing rolling blackouts. But on Thursday, Odendaal announced that Eskom had finally agreed to exempt the metro's fullest dam, Churchill, from loadshedding.
The metro's Water and Distribution director, Joseph Tsatsire, said: "The crisis with load shedding has rubbed salt into the wounds by negatively affecting the water distribution to the city's reservoirs."
Religious leaders from various congregations across the city supported leaders who pleaded with residents to be mindful of the current water crisis and use water responsibly.
