As a consequence, the people who run the city decided to change the rules.
Residents were restricted to just 50 litres of water and a host of everyday practices are prohibited under a series of measures known locally as "level 6B".
Washing cars with municipal water is illegal.
"People turned around and said to themselves ‘we have to stop blaming the city for this’," says Mr Bosman.
Everywhere you go people are talking about water now."
To help enforce "level 6B", the city now employs more than 60 officers as part of a specialised water inspectorate.
"These people are using the municipal supply – as you can see there is the pipe," said Officer Maxim as he gestured towards a hose pipe lying in a large pool of water.
"You are not allowed to use the municipal (water) supply and you know that," said the exasperated-sounding officer.
We saw Cape Town’s water police deal with a host of other incidents over the course of a couple of days and like the drought itself, their presence on the streets is viewed by many as a basic fact of life.
I mean, water, why water?"