United Utilities has apologised after homes and businesses were left without water due to a burst main. Properties in Whitworth, near Rochdale, were affected by low pressure or no water at peak times for four days.
United Utilities handed out bottled water and set up temporary pumping stations to try to improve the pressure which dropped on Monday. It's understood some businesses temporarily closed due to the problems which were fixed today (Thursday).
Due to the remote location of the leak, in a wood above Cowm Reservoir, workers had to dig down to the damaged pipe by hand. Speaking before the problem was fixed, Councillor Scott Smith said: "There are a significant number of residents and businesses without water.
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"That has lessened since Monday, but it's not been completely relieved. There are tankers at four locations pumping water, that's improved things, but it hasn't alleviated it completely.
"It seems to be mainly affecting the southern end of the town, especially properties which are high up, because of the water pressure. I heard of a couple of businesses which have had to close, but other businesses have stepped up.
"One of the hairdressers is offering free hair washes before the kids go back to school while Healey Dell was also offering water to people who were cut off. But United Utilities' response has been really impressive. They turned up with wagons to start pumping water and the morning after set up a bottled water station."
A United Utilities spokesperson said it wasn't possible to say exactly how many properties had been affected because supply had fluctuated depending on the water pressure, but said the problem was fixed.. Phil Sweeney, incident manager at United Utilities, said: "Due to a burst water main in a wooded area in the embankment above Cowm reservoir at Tonge End, some customers in the OL12 areas of Whitworth and Wardle may be noticing lower water pressure than normal.
"Our engineers are working hard in difficult conditions to repair the burst. To keep water flowing to customers we have been using alternative parts of the water network and our fleet of water tankers.
"We have also been delivering bottled water to vulnerable customers on our priority services register and a bottled water station has been set up as a precaution, so households can pick up free bottles of water from us. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing, work to repair the burst is progressing well and we expect to have customers back on normal supplies in the coming days."
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