It is a problem compounded by the fact that the town has been hit by a drought, leading to a sharp drop in water levels at its main storage dam.
When we visited the area last week, Akkerkloof dam had just 20 days’ worth of reserves.
But it is not clear when exactly “day zero” will hit as the authorities have stepped in with water restrictions and emergency funding.
A retirement centre in Knysna has already experienced its version of “day zero” – when a fault at a local municipal plant left the elderly residents without any water for 10 days last October.
This prompted owner, Franco de Grandis, to invest in a back-up water supply for the facility.
“We need water in the apartments; we need water when people are bedridden in nappies. Without water, we cannot function,” he told the BBC.
He has spent around 250,000 South African rand ($15,700; £11,400) on the new operation, which includes three 10,000-litre water storage tanks and specialised pressure pumps to feed that water into some of main buildings, whenever there are water outages.
“We had to make out own plan, I knew I couldn’t allow our residents to experience something like that again,” he said.
Non-governmental organisations like Gift of the Givers have also stepped in to throw a lifeline to residents who cannot afford back-up measures.
From privately dug boreholes, they bring thousands of litres of water in tankers almost daily to the town.
“There is serious gratitude from the people when we arrive,” Gift of the Givers’ local co-ordinator Mario Ferreira told the BBC.
“The disturbing thing is [that] the people start thinking this is the way of life and it shouldn’t be,” Ferreira added.