“The main pipeline was buried on Wednesday evening and it takes about two to three weeks to repair,” North Sumatra provincial administration-owned clean water company PDAM Tirtanadi acting president director Erwin Putra said on Sunday evening, as quoted by kompas.com.

The damage affected Medan Johor, Medan Tuntungan and Medan Helvetia districts in Medan city, and Namorambe district in Deli Serdang regency.

The extreme terrain, the risk of further landslides and heavy rainfall pose significant challenges to the repair work.

As a result, many residents have been forced to find alternative ways to meet their daily water needs, such as buying gallons of water or collecting rainwater.

Adisty, 21, a Medan Tuntungan district resident, shared that the water supply at her home has been out since Wednesday.

"If it rains at night, I stay up to collect rainwater," she told kompas.com.

However, if it doesn't rain, she is forced to buy water gallons or refillable mineral water.

Meanwhile, dozens of residents were seen hunting for buckets at a supermarket, a phenomenon that even went viral on social media.

Windy, the leader of Balikado supermarket, was surprised at how many customers were buying buckets to store collected water.

"I was surprised at first. It started on Saturday night and until today. Turns out it's because the water supply at residents' homes is out, so many people are buying buckets," she said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Windy said that in the past three days, they had sold hundreds of buckets in a single day. They even repeatedly opened their bucket stock, ensuring they had enough for the coming days.

Windy said the most sought-after buckets were the largest ones, which had a capacity of 250 liters.

“The price is Rp 200,000 [US$12.59] each. But residents also bought buckets with small and medium sizes,” she added.

As of Monday, Erwin said PDAM Tirtanadi was still working hard to expedite the repair works while distributing water using tanker vehicles.