As Gauteng residents continue to grapple with erratic water supply and taps that often run dry for days, one Soweto entrepreneur has turned a personal struggle into an innovative solution aimed at helping households cope with the worsening crisis.
Hlumelo Nyaluza, founder of HN Luxury, has developed a foldable water storage system designed to help families store water efficiently, even in small homes or yards. The idea was born from his own experience of living through water shortages in Dobsonville.
Nyaluza said the innovation came after he was forced to move from Messi Park following a terrifying attempted break-in in which he narrowly escaped being shot. When he relocated to Dobsonville, he encountered another challenge: regular water outages.
“When I got there, I realised the taps went dry on Wednesdays and Fridays. I collected four bottles and would fill them up on Tuesdays and Fridays just to have enough water for basic needs,” he said.
Living in a small room made storing water difficult, with bottles quickly taking up precious space.
“They took up so much space in my room that I had to store them in the bathroom. Even a permanent 25-litre bucket would have taken up too much space and would have been an eyesore,” he explained.
Nyaluza said residents were often forced to improvise. His landlord, for example, collected water from the gutter using a vaskom so the household could flush toilets because the small yard could not accommodate a permanent 2,000-litre tank.
That daily struggle sparked the idea for what would eventually become the HN Foldable Water Tank, a collapsible system that can store between 20 litres and 2,500 litres.
“I realised that if I could design a rigid, food-safe water storage product that could fold away when not in use, it could help a lot of people dealing with water shortages,” he said.
Unlike many portable tanks currently on the market, Nyaluza said his design focuses on durability, hygiene and mobility. The tank features four rigid pillars that provide structural support and prevent collapse under water pressure.
“Many foldable tanks collapse under the pressure of water, but this design has strong structural integrity,” he explained.
He added that the larger tanks would be fitted with wheels and a T-bar to make it easier for people to transport water instead of carrying heavy containers from communal taps, water trucks or boreholes.
The tanks are also made from food-grade materials suitable for drinking water, unlike many existing foldable tanks that rely on lower-grade PVC.
Nyaluza has already filed a patent and produced a 3D-printed prototype. His next challenge is raising funds to manufacture steel moulds required for mass production.
“Creating the moulds costs hundreds of thousands, sometimes close to a million rand, but once they are done, I will be able to mass produce the tanks and sell them at affordable prices,” he said.
He is currently raising between R100,000 and R1 million in pre-seed funding and hopes investors and government departments will recognise the potential impact of the innovation.
“I hope companies, private investors or even the Department of Water and Sanitation can see this and support the project because water is a basic human need. No human can survive without water,” he said.
If successfully launched, Nyaluza believes the foldable tank could help households, schools and communities store water during outages and ease the burden of South Africa’s growing water crisis.
The Star