Tap water must be boiled before it can be used. (CBC)

A boil water advisory remains in effect in East Hants.

People who live in Enfield and surrounding areas can't drink their own tap water. That means for thousands of people it's quickly becoming a huge inconvience.

From the outside of Carmie's Daycare it appears to be business as usual, but it's a different story on the inside.

"The kids know they can't use the water," said Carmelita Giansante-Mercer, "We turned it off and we have used Javex to clean everything."

Enfield, Elmsdale and Lantz came under a boil water advisory after a weekly test found possible E. coli and coliforms in the public drinking water. Now extra caution is being used with lots of bottled water and hand wipes.

Water has to be boiled for at least one minute before you can drink it or use it to cook or in infant formula.

At Ann MacNeil's coffee shop, she found out hours after the advisory was announced and she had been drinking tap water.

"If we make a soup, I boil it a little longer before I start. It's not so hard on us as it would be on others," said MacNeil.

People in the area are quickly becoming impatient and want to know when their water will be back to normal.

Further tests will be done but it will take at least 48 hours to determine what steps will come next.