Ruptured water pipes at a luxury apartment complex on Dubai's palm-shaped islands has forced residents to wash in the sea and head to shopping centres to use the toilet.

Property managers at the seven-building Oceana complex say the problems began on Sunday during maintenance work. Officials today gave no timetable for when water could be fully restored.

The outage left many residents showering at pools or scrubbing down in the sea, as temperatures push above 42C. Bathrooms in shopping areas are the only option for tenants who have not fled to hotels.

The water cut has not hit other areas of the palm island, which includes luxury villas.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.