JOHANNESBURG, OCT 22 (AFP/APP/DNA):Joyce Lakela runs a nursery in Tembisa, a Johannesburg township, but these days she spends most of her time trying to find water.
“It’s been going on for five days,” she said, lamenting shortages affecting South Africa’s largest city where temperatures are rising with the beginning of summer.
“This is a big challenge,” the elderly woman said, after filling up a large bin with water from a tanker. “The kids have to wash their hands, we have to flush the toilets, and we also have to wash the kids.”
The crisis is the result of daily restrictions imposed by the city to stop what they say is over-consumption and to allow maintenance work.
While there is enough water in the country’s reserves, for individuals like Lakela, who already faced months of electricity shortages last year, the reality is that taps are going dry for hours and sometimes days.
Last week, residents of Westbury and Westdene, suburbs to the west of the central business district, blocked the streets in protest against water outages. They burned tyres and blocked a road with rocks and debris.
Businesses and services have also been affected, including at least one hospital in northern Gauteng, the province of 16 million people which includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.
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