Daniel Boysen hurries into Kalafong Hospital carrying two plastic bags filled with water bottles for his wife who had just given birth to a premature baby.
She suffers from high blood pressure and had begged her husband to bring her water as she did not have the strength to walk to the water tanker that had parked inside the hospital's yard where some patients had queued with bottles to collect water.
Residents of the three major metros – Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane – have been hit hard by water outages that have left them frustrated. Business owners who have gone days without water have told Sowetan that they rely on tanked water from the municipalities to keep operations running.
Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville, Tshwane, is among health facilities in Gauteng whose taps have run dry.
Omphile, Boysen' wife, was admitted on Monday night and she gave birth the next day. She was eight months into the pregnancy.
She had advised her husband to bring her water as the hospital was experiencing low pressure from its taps.
"My wife has high blood pressure and she needs to drink water regularly. She also complained of back pains and finds it difficult to go to the water tanker. She said I must bring as many bottled water as possible. I will continue to do so until the water crisis is resolved," said Boysen.
He said their daughter would need constant care. "She's healthy and very tiny and still needs kangaroo mother care for the next month, so my wife won't be able to get water from the tankers because she has to babysit the child 24/7," said Boysen.
Rand Water has blamed blackouts on its inability to pump water into reservoirs. Increased demand has also led to reservoirs running dry. Yesterday, Eskom announced it would implement higher stages of blackouts. The country was on stage 6 from midnight to 5am. Stage 5 was implemented thereafter.
The provincial department of health said it had delivered water tankers to Kalafong, Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital and Helen Joseph which were also affected.
Spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said the department was in talks with authorities and utilities to try and minimise the impact.
Extension 2 in Daveyton, on the East Rand, has been without water for the past three weeks, with businesses in the area saying they are taking a knock.
Tshepang Oliphant, 26, who opened Warrior Barber Shop in 2020, said he has lost more than half his profits as a result of the water cuts. "On average we make about R14,000 a month. But since the three-week water cut, I have only made R6,000.
"I need water to wash hair and on top of that load shedding prevents me from cutting people's hair. I am really at a loss."
Oliphant said on top of paying rent of R2,500 and paying other bills, he will be left with no profit. He said his dream of becoming a well-established brand had gone down the drain.
A few metres away from his salon, tombstone production company M&M Tombstones sends workers out to collect litres of water in order to continue their work.
Employee Tshepo Murebudi said the additional labour of having to collect water often affected production as the business is highly dependent on water.
"We need water to cut the granite so as to make it easier and to avoid damaging the equipment. Without water, we cannot do much, so these past few weeks have been labour intensive and this means we produce less stones."
Zubair Khan, who owns a car wash and restaurant in Crown Gardens, south of Johannesburg, said he will have to close shop if the water crisis continued.
He said he only bought the business three weeks ago with hopes of growing it. Closure would lead to 10 people losing their jobs.
"I am at a 100% loss when it comes to the car wash. We have not made a cent for the past three days. I still have to pay rent and salaries and yet we've not even made profit," he said.
For his restaurant, Streats of Mumbai, Khan has been buying water for the past three days for cooking, washing dishes and for customers at a cost of R500 per day.
Farouk Hussain, who runs a car wash in Robertsham, southern Johannesburg, said the situation "is really sad because the same happened three months ago when we went for a week without water".
Petmore Taruvinga, the owner of popular Tsa Afrika Pub and Restaurant in Randburg, northern Johannesburg, said the area has not had water for three days.
He has a water tank and the 5,000 litres lasts for four to five days. To fill it up costs R2,000.
“On average, we spend R600 to R700 on fuel for the generator every five days. You have to understand that since Covid-19 we have not fully recovered. I have been subsidising the restaurant with money from my other business interests hoping that things will get better.
“I told them [staff] that if things remain like this, we might have to wrap up and close in February,” Taruvinga said.
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