Pretoria - Residents in some parts of high-lying areas in the west of Tshwane fetched water with buckets from their neighbours as Rand Water's struggle to restore normal supply continued.
Although most parts of Tshwane did not experience shortages, there were some areas in Saulsville, Atteridgeville, Laudium and Lotus Gardens that had dry taps.
This saw some residents walking and driving within their communities to fetch water from friends and public areas like community halls and churches as they waited for water pressure to be restored in their homes.
Manupe Motala and Joy Lekau joined other affected locals who fetched water at the Mlambo Community Hall in Saulsville near the cemetery with their cars in the morning.
The shortage of supply was caused by Rand Water's failure to restore normal pressure to Tshwane and other parts of Gauteng that depend on it for water like the South of Johannesburg where some residents subsequently protested outside its offices in Glenvista.
Lekau said: "Any time you do not have water in your home it is an inconvenience because water is the one thing we not only cannot live without but we need to use it almost all the time.
"It is getting to a point whereby we will end up having jojo tanks in our yards right here in Gauteng because the inconsistencies in supply is becoming a frequent problem.
"Not long ago almost all of Tshwane did not have water when Rand Water's infrastructure failed and the people in Hammanskraal continue to live with a water crisis and depend on water tanker trucks.
"I was listening to the radio in the morning and realised that these water problems are far and wide across our province because it is either the infrastructure is failing due to poor maintenance, leaks are unattended to or the people are just being wasteful.
MMC for Utility Services and Regional Operations and Co-ordination Phillip Nel said the City of Tshwane had to ask its engineers overnight to re-route some of the water supply in Tshwane to support affected residents.
"We reduced water to low lying levels in parts of the City in order to assist in augmenting the supply to the reservoirs to support residents in Laudium, Atteridgeville and Lotus Gardens.
"It has now been a week since the pressure to these reservoirs collapsed as Rand Water has failed to ensure an adequate supply resulting in taps in these areas running dry.
"Despite continued assurances by Rand Water that they would restore pressure both of the reservoirs remain critically low."
Nel said at this point the City was unable to advise when Rand Water will restore water pressure.
Pretoria News