For six weeks, the people who populate the remote East Coast villages of Cumuto Manzanilla have gone without water, some hauling empty buckets to community pipes to cook food, flush toilets and take care of their children.

Along First and Second Caigual Road, where residents say supplies dried up nearly one month ago, children have been forced to miss school as parents do not have enough water to wash clothing, and barely enough to cook meals.

Nearby, 76-year-old widowed pensioner, Sukiyah Sankar, told the Express she has been rationing the water from a single, nearly emptied water tank and two barrels to cook and clean for herself.