Four days after a state of emergency was declared and residents were told to drastically reduce their water usage, officials in Swan River, Man., say there is no timeline for when the town's water crisis will be fully resolved.

"We are still waiting for some of the parts to arrive but we're beginning the process of the repairs," deputy mayor Lance Jacobson said Wednesday afternoon. "We're still asking everybody to conserve as much water as possible."

In a notice on its website Wednesday morning, the town described the situation as still "very critical." There is no boil-water advisory in effect and the town stressed that there is no risk to firefighting capacity in the town, 380 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

• State of emergency declared in Swan River over dwindling water supply

"We're telling people no baths, no laundry, dishwashers and so on," Jacobson said.

Officials previously said they hoped to have the issues fixed by Thursday, but Jacobson says the town is no longer giving a timeline, in an effort to avoid giving residents false hope.

"We were hoping we'd have all the necessary things here to do the repairs," he said. "We're not giving any timelines right now."

Multiple mechanical issues with the pumps at the town's three wells over the weekend prevented water from reaching the treatment plant, which meant the available supply diminished quickly.

Residents were told to reduce their water use to just two litres a day for drinking, and two litres a day for cooking and sanitation. Volunteers have been handing out cases of bottled water and portable toilets were set up in the car wash bay at the Swan Valley Co-op in the town.

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Schools in the town of about 4,000 people remained closed Wednesday, with the exception of the Swan Valley Regional Secondary School, which was open for students to write exams.

Crews were able to get one of the pumps working and slowly filled the town's water reservoir again. However, that pump now needs to be shut off in order for repairs to be done.

Image | Swan River well

Caption: Problems with Swan River's three water wells prevented water from flowing to the treatment plant over the weekend. (Riley Laychuk/CBC)

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Jacobson said even though the crisis has lasted four days and there is no firm timeline for repairs, people are still coping with the situation.

"It's getting tiresome. It's getting tiresome on everybody," he said. "People are getting tired and we want to get back to normal ... but they're handling it still quite fine."

• Water trucked in as crews work around the clock to fix dry taps in Swan River, Man.

He said the main message for residents is to continue to conserve water and use bottled water as much as possible.

"We just don't want anybody putting any pressure on that public system right now."