They cannot even flush their toilets: life in east London blocks where taps often run dry

Hundreds of residents in nine housing association blocks on the Devons Road estate in Tower Hamlets, east London, have been left without a reliable water supply since Christmas Day last year, with taps frequently running dry for much of the day. The prolonged disruption, which landlord Poplar Harca has been slow to resolve, has left families unable to wash, cook, clean or flush toilets, with many only getting running water in the early hours of the morning. Because the estate houses many people in poverty, living with disabilities, or speaking English as an additional language, campaigners say the crisis highlights how easily marginalised communities can be neglected without prompt intervention.

Residents including Beatrice Asante and Rajia Begum described relying on bottled water delivered irregularly by Poplar Harca, often in quantities far too small for a household's needs, such as three five-litre bottles to last several days. Some households have gone without water for stretches of up to three days, with children refusing to use unflushable toilets and becoming unwell as a result, while one resident's husband suffered a stroke that his wife attributes partly to the stress of the ordeal. Only now, roughly seven months after the problems began and amid a fifth heatwave affecting parts of the country, is the landlord starting to mobilise repairs.