The South African Police Service (SAPS) and the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) have confirmed that they will assist the city of Cape Town to secure water collection points, the city said on Monday.
"The deployment will include inner perimeter security as well as outer perimeter security. There will be static deployment as well as rotational vehicle patrols," the city said in a statement.
The city is currently categorising the water collection points as high, medium or low risk, and adjusting the deployment of security staff at collection sites accordingly.
"The services included in the deployment will be SAPS, metro police, traffic and law enforcement. We will also look at involving community neighbourhood watches where feasible."
The city said that it was aware that with Day Zero approaching, the act of collecting water would be a an inconvenience for many Capetonians – which is why it is considering every possible contingency to ensure that there is no chaos at collection points.
"We will continuously evaluate and fine-tune these measures in the lead-up to Day Zero and in the days that follow," the city's statement said. "The act of collecting water will be a massive inconvenience to Capetonians – if we don't want to queue, we must save water now."
Capetonians are urged to keep their water use below 50 litres per person per day, to avoid running out of water.
According to the city, the collection of water will only be regulated in order to prevent any person from collecting above their daily water allocation.
"Officials will be on site to monitor potential abuse, and residents are also encouraged to report any abuse they witness," the city said.
In October 2017, a public summary of the city's critical water-shortage disaster plan was issued. The plan explained the disaster, dividing it into three phases.