Residents bemoan unhygienic conditions as taps run dry in Midrand, Tembisa

It's been seven days since residents of Klipfontein View in Midrand saw any drops of water coming out of their taps.

Residents said they last had water last week Wednesday. "It is a very difficult situation, this is a nightmare.

If you don't have water, life stops. It's worse than not having electricity. It is difficult to even go to the toilet because that consumes a lot of water.

You have to choose between cooking, drinking and going to the toilet.

Some people do their laundry right there where the truck is giving out water. It is hurting", says a 42-year-old resident Gloria Nguse.

"Johannesburg Water is aware of continuous outages that are affecting the Klipfontein View and there are plans in place to resolve the supply problem in the near future.

Johannesburg Water engaged with Rand Water this morning [yesterday] about the plight of residents in Klipfontein View and restrictions to the Chloorkop reservoir will be lifted, so that water levels will be elevated to ideal pressure in order to resumes service soon" read a statement issued by Johannesburg Water.

Meanwhile in Kanana, Tembisa, children and women, carrying buckets on their heads, queued for water provided on trucks by Johannesburg Water.

People walked kilometers to get water from the only truck that was stationed at Kanana Primary School.

"Our children are dirty, I'm dirty, we all have not taken a bath," shouted Thandazo Nzimande. The 27-year-old mother of two said water outages in Tembisa started on Saturday.

"We are made to live like dogs in very unhygienic conditions, my 67-year-old grandmother has to take her medication and that is difficult without water, she continued."

On Monday, minister of water and sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu said the water shortages were due to low rainfall and rising temperatures.