The water supply was cut off for more than the 24 hours you stated and you better be sure that indeed the company knew about it shortly after it happened.
What makes you sure they knew?
It was more than 24 hrs till everyone had water back on as it takes a while for all the tanks to back-fill. We found out because we lost water pressure on the outside taps. We rang DEWA and by that time water was already back on, but with the delay as I stated above.
I mean, did you read this part of the article you quoted?
A senior representative from the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) said yesterday that the shortage was due to maintenance being carried out on one of two pipes that serve the development. He could not explain why residents were not receiving water through the second pipe.
“There was maintenance work on one of the pipes supply the area with water. But there is another pipe supplying the area so it should not have been a problem. Especially [as the maintenance] didn’t take a long time. It was less than 48 hours and it was supposed to be for the amount of tank water reserved for the houses,” said Abdullah al Hajri, the authority’s executive vice president for customer service.
DEWA probably didn't tell Emirates because they didn't think it was going to be a problem.
Thing is, why would Emirates bother listening to us about the legitimate gripes we might have, if we make ourselves look like a bunch of chronic whiners by complaining about things that are clearly not their fault?