It’s a sight you don’t expect in Cape Town, where the city administration has threatened to turn off the taps because of prolonged, severe drought: children careening down gushing slides into pools of fresh water.
In Cape Town, some businesses that depend on water either are finding their own sources, like Water World, or are struggling to stay open, as the city endures one of the most serious droughts ever in South Africa.
Car washes go on At a filling station in a Cape Town suburb, police have arrived, threatening to shut down its car washing service.
But the owner tells a local news channel he has a license to wash cars using gray, or recycled, water.
“I find it extremely frustrating that legitimate businesses get continuously harassed in this manner, and nothing gets done about informal and illegal car washes blatantly using water in broad daylight,” the owner says.
Far from middle-class havens, in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, Phillip Tatsi, 26, and his fellow street-side car washers say they are making do.
“When the rain is raining, we fetch water and we wash cars, even taxis,” Tatsi says.
David’s current hustle is to fill as many discarded canisters as possible at a tap shared by hundreds of people in his community.
On a good day, David says, he makes 200 rand selling water.
At community water points across the city, residents voice disdain for water profiteers.