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

Chagford House, Devons Road estate, which has been affected by water shortages, with supply turned off for hours each day. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

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.