Cape Town - Southern suburbs residents are bracing for a challenging 3-day water outage that will affect 22 areas from today.

The 72-hour disruption comes as the City of Cape Town embarks on essential maintenance along the Cape Flats water network.

Water and sanitation Mayco member Zahid Badroodien urged residents to stockpile enough water in cleaned, sealed containers for their household.

The areas affected are Wynberg, Wetton, Ottery, Plumstead, Diep River, Southfield, Elfindale, Heathfield, Retreat, Steenberg, Lavender Hill, Seawinds, Vrygrond, Muizenberg, Parkwood, Lotus River, Grassy Park, Zeekoevlei, Pelican Park, Pelican Heights, Peacock Close and Eagle Park.

Remaining positive about the next few days is Mark Rossouw from Steenberg, who welcomed the maintenance.

“The City will provide tankers at strategic points so that people don’t really run out of water, but there has been a fair warning about a week ago telling people about the water outage.

“I think people understand because the City said if they don’t fix it now then it will cause problems in the future,” he said.

However, the timing has not been welcomed by everyone, as Dorothy Soetwater from Lavender Hill, who lives in a household of eight people, said she’s had to stockpile litres of water, even filling her bathtub and top-load washing machine with water.

“Water is so important, we have sick people, the elderly and babies who need water. I am trying to alert as many people as possible because not everyone is on social media.

“They promised water tankers, but people fight to get water and wait a long time to get assistance with water,” Soetwater said.

Kelly Kotik from Muizenberg said the situation was stressful.

“I have already filled up the bathtub and have 30 litres of drinking water, but we are going to have to make a plan with dinner because it is going to be challenging cooking so many meals and not having water to wash the dishes.

“I’ve decided not to not attend any of the fitness classes I usually do, but this will affect my partner who is a surf instructor and likes to take warm showers to warm up.”

Roscoe Jacobs, an activist in Hout Bay, said residents’ right to access water and sanitation should not be violated over the three days.

“The City of Cape Town needs to ensure that healthcare facilities and other public facilities within these communities are not affected in a manner that would stop services from taking place over any period in the next three days,” he said.

marsha.dean@inl.co.za

Cape Argus