Egypt's Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab (Photo: AP)
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab has ordered prosecutors to investigate employees at a state water plant after lengthy water cuts affected parts of the capital on Saturday and Sunday.
The water outage, which dragged on for almost a full day, affected eastern and southern districts of Cairo, including Nasr City, Moqattam and Maadi.
Many local residents voiced their fury at the outage on social media.
Water has been restored in several areas, according to water officials.
Mahlab said the outage was due to "gross negligence" on the part of staff and ordered the whole team be questioned by prosecutors.
He spoke during a visit on Sunday evening to the water plant in Cairo's southern suburb of Maadi, state news agency MENA reported.
"We won’t allow any negligence nor will we cover up mistakes, negligence or corruption," Mahlab was quoted by MENA as saying.
The prime minister confirmed supplies have been gradually restored to affected areas after repairs were carried out.
Water cuts have been recurrent in Cairo and other cities often due to periodic maintenance or system breakdowns. Several impoverished areas in and outside the capital have long complained of failures by successive governments to provide basic water supply systems.
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