Businesses and residents on Sydney's north shore are into their third day of water outages, after a burst main went unrepaired since Saturday.
Locals have reported not having access to running water over the weekend, with some shops forced to close.
On Monday morning, water was still gushing out from a break in the line on busy Epping Road in Lane Cove.
It has also caused heavy traffic at the corner of Epping and Mowbray roads, with Transport for NSW reporting buses were being delayed by 25 minutes due to the burst main.
Up to 2,000 business and residents in Artarmon, Chatswood, Cremorne, Greenwich, Lane Cove, Lane Cove West, Neutral Bay, North Sydney, Waverton and Wollstonecraft have been affected.
A water tanker was sent to the area on Sunday to provide an alternative water supply.
Sydney Water has deployed crews to fix the leak, but said it is "taking some time due to the complexity of the break".
"We understand there has been a delay in rectifying the issue, but we are committed to finding a solution as quickly as we can in order to restore services to impacted properties," it said.
Sydney Water's head of network operations, Peter Chapman, said crews had been working "around the clock" but the location and complexity of the break was challenging.
"There is still water gushing out over Epping Road," he said.
"There are quite a number of water mains that interconnect with that, many different valves that we need to operate to isolate.
"We're trying to do that in a coordinated manner so that we minimise disruption as best we can to so many customers."
Lane Cove North resident Anthony Esposito said he was due for major surgery this afternoon and was forced to travel to his mother's home near Liverpool so he could take a shower over the weekend.
"We've had no water for over 48 hours," he said.
"[The hospital] made a provision for me to come to the hospital early so I could shower in the hospital in preparation for the surgery.
"It's terribly frustrating."
Mr Esposito said locals were frustrated by the lack of communication from Sydney Water.
"Residents were kept completely in the in the dark as to what was going on," he said.
"There was no notification on Sydney Water's official emergency website over the weekend.
"We're just scratching our heads as to why it's taking so long."
Yesterday, a cafe worker in Lane Cove said they had to cut back what was on offer.
"My boss brought a lot of water from her home, a lot of buckets. We did just the coffee because it doesn't need a lot of water," the staff member said.
Jack O'Dwier said he'd been without water since Saturday but had little information about what was going on.
"I've been out for a day, since last night (Saturday). My work also has no water as well," he said.
Naya Cook said people were confused.
"I feel like a lot of people are really in the dark ... it's obvious that they're not really being told what's going on and they just want know what's happening and when it will be fixed," she said.