Water Stoppages

This one is not for sensitive readers. I just spent a few weeks in Eastern Cape Townships. During this time, the water -- throughout the townships -- stopped bang, several times. Someone asked me, Didn't you hear, someone went round with a megaphone to warn of a water stoppage? Well, I didn't hear. And they won't tell one when they will turn it on again. There are of course more clever ways of informing people of drastic action apart from a megaphone. Besides which, how does a bundle of townships sensibly get by without water? People really, really need water for all kinds of things. OBSERVATION: One might suggest, put some water aside, fill up a drum, or something. But then a youngster seizes the water (as in fact happened), and makes a bath for herself, and there is none left to spare. During one water failure, a child vomited, put her hands to her mouth, then smeared vomit all over. There was little water to clean it up. Someone said to me, "The Council doesn't care a stuff about the populace." It seems to me to be a gradual decline. An isolated water failure can be a shock, but repeated water failures give the impression of a decline in the quality of life.