‘Every Day Is Our Day Zero'

A frantic drive to save water is on in drought-stricken Cape Town – but people in informal settlements have been living the reality of Day Zero for decades. YOU spoke to three Khayelitsha residents

- Samantha Luiz

SHE carries three empty 20-litre containers with the help of her grandchildren.

Heading to the communal tap in the sprawling Cape Town township of Khayelitsha, Khululwa Joda has been living the dreaded Day Zero all her life.

She fills the containers to the brim and walks back to her shack. The 60 litres will be enough for her family of eight to drink, cook and bathe with for the day, she says.

The family isn’t panicked about the drought devastating the Mother City. They’re unaffected by the water restrictions that have caused hundreds of thousands of Capetonians to change the way they live their lives and think about the precious resource they used to take for granted.

Khululwa, and thousands of township dwellers like her, are used to making do with only a small amount of water a day.

With no access to a flushing toilet or running water in her house, she’s learnt to live on as little as possible every day.

But that doesn’t mean she and her family of three adults and five children don’t do their bit to save water, the 58-year-old sangoma tells YOU.

“We used to wash our clothes any day of the week but now we’ve cut it down to just weekends.

“We know the situation is bad. We’ve seen it on TV and heard about it on the radio,” she says.

When Khululwa and her family realised just how dire the situation was, she started stockpiling rations in the house.