A boil water notice went into effect Monday in Rio Grande City. 

City officials said the boil water notice stems from a 15-hour water outage that led to a drop in water pressure, making it dangerous for residents to drink or cook using water from the tap.

Residents in the Las Lomas community and across Rio Grande City will have to boil their tap water. They said it’s an inconvenience that’s still better than the two days they spent without water.

Maria Arellano says she and several neighbors teamed up while their taps ran dry. 

“My brother bought a water tank, the kind you use on a ranch, and we shared with three other houses” Arellano said. 

The two-day dry spell — and now boil notice — is because a major pipe burst on Friday night.

The leak lasted 15 hours.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Water service disruption affecting residents near Rio Grande City

Channel 5 News has learned that the city lost nearly 3.3 million gallons of water during that leak.

“It was a lot of hours without service so it really emptied some of the reservoirs,” Rio Grande City City Manager Gilberto Millan said.

According to Millan, an aging water pipe gave out, and then several smaller breaks happened.

The city hopes to add 30 more valves across the city's water system. 

“A valve cuts off not too far from where the leak is at so you don't have to shut down a whole neighborhood,” Millan said.

Each valve, Millan said, comes with a $3,000 price tag. 

“The city is working to not only fix this in a shorter amount of time we're working on solutions to prevent this,” Millan said.

Channel 5 News will keep you posted on when the boil water notice is lifted.

Watch the video above for the full story.