The low pressure and boil water advisories put a lot of stress on the local food industry and because of that, some businesses have decided to take matters into their own hands and not depend on the municipal water system.
You can't have New Orleans without tourists, and you can't have tourists without our world-famous food. And you can't have food without water, so some businesses that don't want to lose business are taking action.
At Deanie's Seafood in the French Quarter, water is its lifeline, from ice to washing dishes to the soft drink fountain. Back in 2016, they had had enough of the numerous city boil water advisories and the large hit to revenue when you have to close, especially on a weekend.
"It's a tandem system, which means that if one goes out the second one will start running, so there's no way for us to be out of water," said Deanie's manager Kevin Bauer.
So they spent $75,000 on a water filtration system with carbon and UV filtration, water softeners and salt tanks. In the first year, it paid for itself.
"This weekend, being able to be open on a Friday and Saturday when other people couldn't be, we were able to work as if nothing happened," Bauer said.
Over at Haydel's Bakery, the business would lose a lot of dough, if they can't make dough for their famous king cakes.
"The boil water advisory came probably at one of the worse times, you know, during Mardi Gras, because everything that we make from the icing to the king cake, everything is made with water," said David Haydel, co-owner of Haydel's Bakery.
So the minute the alert came out, they bought water from four grocery stores and had a distributor bring another 200 cases for the next morning.
"We rather have safe king cake than no king cake at all," added Haydel.
At St. Roch Market, the owner of Coast Roast Coffee and Tea quickly went on Amazon and got that $80 pump he always wanted, so there was enough pressure for those specialty lattes and cappuccinos.
"Now with the new pump, we are ready at a moment's notice. We can switch that switch and be back up and, you know, literally it's a switch of a valve and we're completely 100 percent operational. We won't miss a beat," said owner Kevin Pedeaux .
Deanie's Seafood said there were restaurants around them that had to close this past weekend, and they say weekend revenue in the restaurant business in "huge."