Residents of El-Gamaleya district in the Nile Delta organised a sit-in on Tuesday in front of the Daqahliya governor's office to protest the ongoing water outage that began in late May, reports Mona Basha, a correspondent for Al-Ahram Arabic.

Tens of residents holding empty water bottles protested on Tuesday afternoon demanding an immediate solution to the crisis.

Water outages have been recurrent in Daqahliya governorate and other cities due to periodic maintenance or system breakdowns.

For more than a month, residents of Daqahliya's El-Gamaleya district have relied on wells or delivery companies to provide them with water.

The head of Daqahliya water company, Ezzat El-Sayad, told Ahram Online that they are doing their best to solve the water problem throughout Egypt.

Many local residents voiced their outrage to water companies and government authorities, but to no avail.

"The main problem is that the water consumed is much more than that produced in Egypt," said El-Sayad.

According to a reporter for Ahram, government officials told residents that it would be difficult to connect parts of the city to a water supply, as their budget is not sufficient to cover these costs.

Daqahliya residents gathered money to help resolve the issue. However, water companies informed residents that their plans to fix the problem would take a year or more in some cities.

According to El-Sayad, the north of Daqahliya faces water outages due to an unfinished water plant, adding, "We expect the problem in the North to be resolved by March 2016 once the plant is completed."

"Black market trading of water has now increased, as a gallon of water is sold for EGP 10," said Basha. 

Water outages are also a regular occurrence in Cairo and other cities.

On Tuesday morning, residents of Mariouteya in Giza's Haram district blocked the ring road for fifteen minutes in protest against water outages.

Minister of Irrigation, Hossam Moghazi, said in March that Egypt's current yearly consumption of water amounts to nearly 83 billion cubic meters, while its share of Nile water stands at 55.5 billion cubic meters.

The minister added that Egypt receives an additional four billion cubic meters from rain and groundwater.