FOR more than 24 hours, an unprecedented water outage has been the source of frustration for Skennars Head and Lennox Head residents.

"Water's a human right," Skennars Head resident Sharon Kelly said.

"It means no showers, no washing, nothing to drink unless I go town."

• What residents need to know about water outage

She said her whole street had been affected by the outage, and many of her neighbours had taken time off work to babysit kids who were unable to attend schools or daycare located in town.

They have not seen a drop of water from Ballina Shire Council's water tankers, which are supposed to be providing an emergency supply to the area.

Ms Kelly, who is a shift worker, will be heading to work tonight without having a shower.

"You feel grotty, everybody likes their daily shower," she said.

"And there's no water to flush the loo."

Residents are in the dark as to when the water supply will be restored.

"We are continuing to work as quickly to work as possible to restore service via the temporary water supply," the council's water and wastewater manager Bridget Walker said.

"This is the most serious outage in recent history that we are aware of.

"Although some people are still not receiving water, tankers have delivered 350,000 litres over the past 24 hours. That's about 875 litres of water per household."

Residents without water have been advised to shower at the Ballina Indoor Sports Centre, open from 8.30am to 10pm on weekdays.

Ms Walker also quashed rumours the outage has been caused by damaged infrastructure at North Creek.