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

Devons Road estate residents describe months-long ordeal of not being able to wash, clean or cook for much of the day Hundreds in London flats left without regular running water since last year Christmas Day in east London. Beatrice Asante empties a bag of potatoes into her kitchen sink and turns on the tap. Nothing. She turns it off and on again. Still nothing. What now? Asante rushes out to the only shop that is open, the local Nisa convenience store. She buys several big plastic bottles of water. Enough, she thinks, to make dinner and to last until the taps start running again. Seven months later and as parts of the country brace for a fifth heatwave, Asante still cannot rely on tap water. She is one of hundreds of householders in housing association flats on the Devons Road estate in Tower Hamlets who have been left for up to a year without a reliable supply. Only now, after months of delay, is the landlord mobilising to have the problem repaired. It is difficult to understand just how much we rely on running water – until it is taken away. Residents of the nine blocks affected have been left unable to properly wash themselves, clean their homes or cook. For long stretches each

Aug 11, 2026 → Aug 11, 2026