Trauma nurse Denise Moodley waited in her car outside her home in Chatsworth for almost three hours while her husband, Gavin, tried to find enough water for her to have a shower on Friday night.
Gavin gathered bottles of water from the fridge and kettle, but it wasn’t enough.
“I was so stressed. After a shift in a hospital where Covid-19 patients are treated, I needed a proper shower.
“I usually hose off in the garage, throw my clothes in the washing machine and then shower in the outbuilding. It has been my routine for months now,” she told Sunday Times Daily.
Just as Gavin was about to get into his car to travel to neighbouring Malvern to fetch water from a relative’s home, a truck pulled into the road.
It wasn’t a municipal water tanker, but a privately owned vehicle.
“The driver started to hoot and called for people to fetch water.
“I actually felt like crying. I sat in the car watching my husband and neighbours fill buckets and bottles with water from the truck. I don’t know who owns the truck or who sent the water, but it was a godsend,” Moodley said.
When taps ran dry on Thursday after a pump in Northdene malfunctioned, the Chatsworth community and civil society from all over Durban rallied together to bring water to the Covid-19 hotspot.
African Democratic Change (ADC) president Visvin Reddy said members of many religious organisations and humanitarian groups as well as individuals reached out to help their fellow residents.
I don’t know who owns the truck or who sent the water, but it was a godsend.
— Trauma nurse Denise Moodley
“This is the greatest show of fellowship ever seen, or heard of, in Chatsworth. People have removed all blinkers, like religious affiliation, racial identities and social differences, to assist one another,” he said.
Community activist Omi Nair said her faith in humanity was restored as organisations reached out to Chatsworth and Shallcross.
She said businesses, service stations, hotels and non-profit organisations opened their taps for residents to collect water.
A lobby group, NICSA Cares, transported water from Verulam, Jacobs, Pinetown and other areas to Chatsworth for distribution.
It called for residents battling Covid-19 to erect a white flag outside their homes so its members could deliver water to them.
The group distributed more than 15,000 litres on Sunday and planned to distribute another 16,000 on Monday.
Meanwhile, residents took to social media to lambaste eThekwini Municipality for failing to send water tanks to the area.
The municipality said it had commissioned 94 water tankers to supply the water.
In a Facebook post on Sunday evening, it said the supply would be restored by Monday if everything went according to plan.
On Monday, it posted that it had commissioned a cross-connection from Hocking reservoir to the Washington Heights reservoir to enable water supply to KwaSanti, Luganda, Savannah Park and other areas south of Durban.
But by Monday afternoon taps remained dry.
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