PETALING JAYA, Sept 2 — A water shortage during Merdeka weekend was a crisis no Malaysian saw coming.

Although water is back in three of the seven affected districts, hypermarkets, mini markets and sundry shops have mostly run out of bottled water.

A senior manager from Giant hypermarket said most of its stores were running low on bottled water, but they are doing their best to cope with the situation.

“This is a national issue. We are running low on bottled water at our outlets. Many have run out of stock because our suppliers don’t have any more for the next few days,” she said.

She said the prices of the bottled water remained the same throughout this period.

Mini markets around Petaling Jaya, namely KK Mart and 99 Speedmart, also faced a shortage of bottled water.

A shop assistant at 99 Speedmart, Qu Syawal, 21, said that prices were not raised and stocks of bottled water ran out within an hour of the announcement by Syabas on Friday.

“We will have to wait until Wednesday to stock up,” he said.

Public relations officer Carol Teoh, 26, has not experienced any water cuts in her area, U5 Subang Two, but explained how she could not dine in restaurants at One Utama shopping mall because of the water shortage.

“After 15 minutes of sitting in a Peranakan restaurant, I was told they could not serve me as there was not enough water. I then proceeded to five other outlets in the mall, who also turned my boyfriend and I away because of the water shortage,” she said.

Housewife Thressia Bosco, 59, who lives in SS21, Damansara Utama, said having no water from Friday night to Saturday afternoon affected her cooking and bathing.

“I ate out for the two days and stocked up on pails of water. I also boiled enough water to last me a week,” she said.

“Although water is back, I am still stocking up just in case we run short again.”