Updated 1.30pm

The week-long power cut saga turned into a "nightmare" for several who on Monday night also experienced a water supply outage.

Despite the prime minister's reassurance on Sunday that Enemalta had restored electricity to all, several localities, including parts of Ħamrun, Żebbuġ, Marsaxlokk, Msida, Attard, Marsascala and Xemxija spent another night in the dark.

Some people in Naxxar, San Ġwann and Għargħur meanwhile also had no water supply, with residents comparing the situation to "a nightmare".

Parents of children who attend SkolaSajf at the Naxxar primary school said they picked up their children drenched in sweat, as the school also suffered power and water supply outages.

Meanwhile, a Gżira resident who has been suffering power cuts since Thursday said she "could not take it any more".

She first experienced a 15-hour outage on Thursday, followed by several power cuts in the afternoon, and through the night, since then.

On Monday at midnight, she had to seek alternative accommodation.

The power cuts have severely impacted businesses.

"It angers me that I have to seek alternative accommodation at friends' every single night. My child and pets have to join me too. It's seriously causing me depression and anxiety. How can one go to work the next day," she asked.

On Tuesday morning, a Ħandaq (Qormi) pasta business owner said power at his family-run factory went out at 5am.

"I could not send deliveries to my customers and I had to send all my staff home... it's all a loss of money for me," he said.

He said that if goods - stored in cold rooms - defrosted as a result of the outage, he would have to throw away produce that is worth thousands of euros.

Another business owner told Times of Malta he had to keep his Żebbuġ stationery shut due to power cuts.  

Localities across Malta and Gozo have had to contend with eight consecutive nights of power cuts during the ongoing heatwave, with blackouts lasting up to 36 hours in many cases. 

On Monday, Enemalta said demand for electricity reached a new record of 649MW as Malta sizzled in a week-long heat-wave.

Mater Dei Hospital also experienced a power cut on Monday night, with generators failing to kick in for 52 minutes in parts of the building. The outage did not impact essential services.

Power outages also impacted water supply in some areas when water boosting stations in Naxxar and San Niklaw, limits of Siġġiewi went offline. 

The outage left households and businesses in several localities without water overnight and into Tuesday morning. 

'Why hasn't the PM declared a national emergency?'

A St Julian's resident said parts of Birkirkara Road had not had power for at least 13 hours, following five consecutive outages. 

"Please help us... It's impossible to report the outage as Enemalta's customer care line just cuts off, and 153 has a power cut so they can't help for at least three hours.

"Why hasn't the prime minister declared a national emergency and brought in the army to back up the Enemalta engineers," she asked.

"It was hell," one Marsaxlook reader whose power was only restored just before 1am, told Times of Malta.

An Attard resident who did not suffer an outage herself meanwhile told Times of Malta that her elderly parents, also Attard residents had suffered at least four electricity cuts in a week.

The cuts, she said, took place on July 17 between 9.40pm and 2.30am, July 22 between 6.30pm and 8.45am, July 23 between 7.30pm and 8.45am and again on Monday at 9pm, when the elderly couple decided to sleep at their daughter's place.

"The question is: is there some kind of pattern here?... What adds insult to injury in my parents’ case is that many times, when they have a power outage, the other two apartments in their block do not since they seem to be dependent on a different phase.

"Not all houses/apartments in Triq il-Ferrovija get power outages at the same time. Street lighting has not been affected at all," she added.

An Msida reader told Times of Malta on Monday night that festa plans for some have been ruined, as they continued suffering power outages since Saturday. 

"This is the third night where we'll remain drenched in our sweat, unable to carry out our normal evening routines, and unable to sleep and get our mental rest after a long day of work, worrying about elderly parents and beloved pets.

"I cannot understand why we are being kept without electricity when Enemalta keeps saying all cable faults are resolved, and when during the day, we get electricity again for a few hours. If this were a fault, surely once it was fixed we would have power constantly for the rest of the following days."

The resident said that despite the constant power cuts, these outages are not showing on Enemalta's interactive online map.

The resident confirmed on Tuesday morning that despite power returning between 1.40am and 3.45am, electricity was only restored just before 10.30am.

13 underground cable faults

On Tuesday morning, Enemalta said its technical teams continued with extensive repairs overnight to restore electricity to customers in parts of Naxxar, Mosta and Ħandaq.

In all, some 13 underground cable faults were registered on Monday night.

The company reiterated its "network difficulties" were caused by the ongoing heatwave.

"With many of last week’s faults repaired, on Monday night Enemalta could use the repaired cables to restore electricity supply to customers impacted by new faults in a shorter time.

"In other areas, additional repairs to damaged cables are necessary before customers can be reconnected to the grid."

The power supplier said other technical teams were helping customers report localised faults in their individual service connection or in small areas, such as part of a street.