H20

“Don’t drink our water!” was one of the first tips we received upon our arrival in Witbank, ZA. I’ll be honest; I didn’t realize how much of a giant pain in the ARSE it would be to avoid ingesting tap water. Think about it: washing dishes, cooking, bathing, and brushing your teeth…all of these routine tasks involve using water from the good ‘ole tap. Bad tap water meant that we had to completely adjust our water habits.

The reason I am sharing our bad water situation is because we have had several days of water that looks like this:

Methinks a pipe is broken. Hey, Witbank, this is NOT okay!!!!!

Now, here is a photo of what our normal “clean(ish)” tap water looks like – yellowish with a bit of an odor. This is also NOT okay but it's better than brown!!!!!

Aside from Witbank’s poor water quality, we experience many other water-related issues such as not having it. Yep, our Municipality will arbitrarily turn it off for no apparent reason. Sometimes for days. As I type this, I am desperately worried that I am jinxing myself and it will be turned off in the near future. Eeeeeek! Oh well, I am doing it for the sake of this little blog. :-)

Due to the gross water, we are forced to buy purified, clean drinking water a couple times a month – typically 145 Liters per trip. The clean water business is a lucrative one here in Witbank. Here is a photo of our water containers:

If you are planning to visit ZA in the future, don’t worry, the nasty water situation is not consistent across South Africa. It only affects a lucky handful of cities with broke Municipalities like ours.

So, next time you turn on your tap and see clean and clear water, think of us and be grateful you don’t have to worry about what specimens might be lurking in your glass.

Love,

Jess & Mat