Water outage survival guide: tips and tricks to keep you sane

Residents in several parts of Johannesburg, including Melville and Auckland Park, will have no water this weekend of 27-28 February.

Rand Water announced on Tuesday a 30-hour planned water interruption from 1pm on Saturday to Sunday in order to allow technicians to replace an 800mm valve and bypass valve.

Water tankers will be placed around the affected areas. This is part of a five-year plan to upgrade, maintain and replace faulty and ageing infrastructure across its network.

READ NEXT: 30-hour water shutdown scheduled for large parts of Joburg

Here are some simple tips to survive the water outage:

• The water shutdown starts at 1pm, take a shower or bath earlier and store as much as possible
• Store water for cooking and drinking
• Use bucket water to flush the toilet and bucket water to clean yourself (bath time can happen the next day)
• To store a lot of water, fill your bathtub
• Self-care Sunday can wait, leave the hair washing for another day
• Use hand sanitiser instead of hand soap and water. This will stretch your water supply
• This is contrary to staying active but take it easy. Do activities that will keep you cool and minimise your water intake
• Do your laundry ahead of time, have enough clean clothes to last you two days
• Hand wipes can be used on kitchen and bath surfaces, instead of soap and water.
• Use paper cups and plates so there are fewer dishes to wash.

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