An entire housing estate has been left with no water for nearly a whole week, leaving residents unable to wash, clean or use the toilet.

Residents on the Stamford Hill Estate whose water has been intermittent to non-existent since Wednesday last week complained the “third world” situation is compounded by the fact they have been left in the dark as to what the problem is, and when it will be fixed.

Thames Water has passed the buck to housing association Southern Housing Group (SHG) – who told the Gazette on Tuesday they had the situation under control, but would not be able to restore water to everyone immediately.

Yesterday staff began sticking posters on people’s front doors apologising for the situation.

Michaela Morris, who has been without water for three days, said: “Still we do not know how long we will be without water and when it will be fixed, bearing in mind people cannot flush their toilets.

“There has been no installation of portaloos but they are offering bottles of water for able-bodied residents who are in-the-know to collect from the community centre.”

She continued: “They’re handling it like it’s just a minor thing, and the patronising ‘I can understand it must be frustrating and we apologise but there’s nothing we can do’ spiel is a disgrace.

“’Frustrating’ is an understatement for being without any running water in your home for almost a week with little to no communication, not to mention it is December and cold, and some residents have babies and children and medical conditions.”

Sheena Vidot, who lives in Malvern House block has been without water for six days, said: “There are lots of families and kids on the block, and with the temperature going lower it is creating a third-world situation. It’s absolutely ridiculous that in London in 2016 this is happening.”

Michael Rose told the Gazette the same thing had happened on the estate this time last year: “All the residents were left without water for months before SHG acted. It’s simply unbelievable that the same thing has happened again. It’s a dreadful situation which urgently needs to be resolved.”

A spokesman for SHG said they had been working over the weekend to “resolve the water supply issue”, but hadn’t been able to identify a “technical fault in the system”.

She continued: “Thames Water carried out some planned maintenance work last week and we believe that the water supply to the estate was isolated during this time, limiting the supply to the communal water tanks.

“Consequently the scheme’s main water tank and each of the blocks’ tanks were unable to refill themselves and this limited the water supply to our residents.

“We can confirm that the main water supply is now operational and providing sufficient water to the scheme’s water system. Due to the size of the water tanks and the number of homes they supply, re-filling the tanks will take a few days.”