Tens of thousands of homes and businesses across 74 towns and cities have been cut off, forcing residents to join long queues for bottled water. And Northern Ireland Water, the private company that oversees the service, said the situation would likely continue into the new year.

“Having clean drinking water is a very important aspect of life, and we are trying to get that system back up and working as fast as we can,” Liam Mulholland, customer services director for NI Water, told reporters, adding that reservoir levels had also dropped dangerously low. “This may go on for another short period, but we are doing our best to keep it as short as possible to get those reservoir levels up and provide water to our customers…”

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