Efforts to stabilise the water crisis caused by infrastructure problems in Knysna in the Western Cape is still under way as most of the town has been without water for almost three weeks now.

Pumps to the main reservoirs broke down, leading to the water outages.

A joint operations centre has been set up to coordinate repairs as well as water deliveries to residents.

Several tankers have been dispatched from other municipalities.

VIDEO | Residents left high and dry

“All the water, most of it comes from the river through the Chanceford Scheme and through the Akkerkloof Dam and unfortunately, the pumps that need to pump the water from the river to the Akkerkloof Dam, two of them are broken since Wednesday. We have been assisting here from the district municipality side. We’ve also provided water trucks, one 10 000 and 1 600 litre trucks, and also six 5 500 litre Jojo type tanks that the municipality is placing at libraries and community halls, ” Garden Route District Municipality’s Disaster head, Gerhard Otto says

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Thousands of residents in Knysna in the Western Cape have been without water for close to two weeks. The problem has been blamed on ageing infrastructure and the lack of maintenance. pic.twitter.com/ZTo54F4GXf

— SABC News (@SABCNews) May 16, 2025