Stormers captain Siya Kolisi - "it is really tough back at home".
Stormers captain Siya Kolisi - "it is really tough back at home".
The Stormers are celebrating being able to have "long showers" as the highlight of their Super Rugby assignment in Australia so far.
Cape Town is enduring a frightening water shortage with authorities predicting they will cut off supplies to residents in early July.
Stormers captain Siya Kolisi, the Springboks loose forward, told media that "long showers" were providing the biggest thrill for the team since arriving in Sydney, where they play the Warathas on Saturday night.
"Even baths, just doing whatever you want with the water," the Sydney Morning Herald reported him as saying.
The Stormers' deal with Coca-Cola means they have a water supply at Cape Town trainings but homelife is a different story where emergency measures include using dirty bathwater to flush toilets. Residents are limited to 50 litres of water a day.
Kolisi said: "We have to use a plastic bath to put water in … it's really tough back at home," Kolisi said. "I wash my son, then I wash myself in that water too. We have to do as much as we can to save water."
"If you have a shower, you'll wet yourself, switch off the tap, put soap on and then switch it on and rinse yourself. It's a two-minute shower.
"Rugby is not more important than the actual people that are living like this. If we have to sacrifice water, then so be it."
Coach Robbie Fleck outlined the restrictions his players faced at home, where twice-daily showers are a thing of the past.
"The boys are now under strict guidelines when using the toilets and the facilities," he said.
"Now they get nothing. We're there from 6am to 5pm and the boys have to handle each other for the entire day between sessions.
"It's not ideal, especially if you're a coach; you're pretty clean and the boys are getting stuck in. It's what we're facing.
"It's a very serious situation. This hasn't happened in 100 years, so families have had to adjust and 'Day Zero' is coming soon.
"When you leave the ground there are various springs where the water is coming from underground and there are hundreds of people standing there with bottles of water queuing up.
"They're cancelling club rugby and cricket and the kids can't play. As a team, we're on a big drive to saving water and trying to promote that and get some good systems in place. The city is struggling.
"It's good to have long showers while we are in Sydney."
Residents fill their bottles at a spring near Newlands.
Kolisi fears what life will be like when the water is cut off, and each resident will be down to using 15 litres of water a day - slightly more than one toilet flush — if they can find it. "I have two kids, my brother, sister and wife. It's tough to be limited. We'll have to figure out ways," he said.
South Africa is in the grip of a national disaster with drought hitting southern and western regions. July 9 has been marked as Day Zero, when supplies will be cut off.
