Hundreds of households in the southeast of England have toiled without running water for a fifth day, in an outage that has hit tens of thousands in the run-up to Christmas.
Following the deep blast of Arctic air that blanketed the UK in snow and ice earlier in the month, temperatures shot up by almost 20C in some areas as we entered the final week of Advent – with the rapid thaw wreaking havoc on the water network due to a surge in burst pipes.
As a result, northwards of 40,000 properties in Kent, Sussex, Hertforshire and Essex were estimated to have lost access to water at the start of the week.
Five days later, the majority of residents are once again enjoying running water – but hundreds, if not thousands, of people remain without, as uncertainty lingers over whether they will see liquid emerge from their taps and showerheads in time for Christmas.
South East Water told The Independent just after 3pm on Friday that approximately 300 properties in Sussex and 100 in Kent were still impacted, while Affinity Water said it was aware of 113 customers in the Hertfordshire town of Bishop’s Stortford who were suffering with outages or low pressure.
“Pressure is not building up as expected following work to repair the damage caused by the sudden temperature change earlier this week,” a spokesperson for Affinity said.
“We believe this is due to an airlock in some parts of the network, which is preventing the pressure from building up. We have teams of technicians on the ground who are working to get the air out of the network so we can then start to build up pressures again.”
The company told the BBC that there had been 12 times the amount of burst pipes typically seen during this time of the year.
Lewis Baker, who lives in Kent, with his girlfriend and 17-month-old daughter, said his family had been without water for eight days, which has made it much more difficult to wash and sterilise bottles for their toddler.
“We are in a very fortunate position where we have access to a car so we can go, but it makes you wonder what the elderly, disabled and people who don’t drive are currently doing,” he told the Press Association news agency.
Southern Water, meanwhile, had reported some 20,000 outages in Kent earlier this week, but a spokesperson declared on Friday afternoon: “It’s over”, and said that supplies had “returned this morning”.
However, a number of customers in Hampshire complained on social media on Friday evening that they were yet to see water return to their homes.
Asked about the complaints, a Southern spokesperson said: “After a challenge like this, recharging the network does take time and has to be done carefully so as not to cause further problems. We are confident that everyone will be back in supply. Anyone who is not getting water yet should contact us.”
Southern has been running collection points where it said affected residents have picked up some 700,000 litres of bottled water during the outage, and Southern said it had delivered to vulnerable customers in 1,628 households on Thursday alone.
But Kerri Watt, a 38-year-old with chronic health conditions who is currently battling a Covid-19 infection, said that she had not received a delivery for three days despite being on Southern’s priority list, while experiencing low water pressure in her home.
“As a vulnerable customer I need to know that help will come. Not even having a water bottle delivered to your house when it’s been promised three days isn’t exactly reassuring,” Ms Watt, who lives in the New Forest, told The Independent.
“Their lack of social media presence responding to angry, upset or confused customers is really disappointing. Especially when their texts and website say to check social media for updates.”
The company has had two teams responding to customers on social media throughout the incident – one directly to specific enquiries and another providing general updates, which said of the situation in South Hampshire at 5pm: “We’re confident the network is stable, so we’ll close and remove all bottled water stations at 6pm tonight.”
While this was the first time this year that she has experienced issues with her water supply, Ms Watt said: “Their reasons for the current issues [don’t] make me feel confident in their ability to keep water supplies going.
“From their description of pipes freezing then thawing, surely this should be anticipated through winter.”
The thaw is understood to have had a major impact on Southern’s network, including the key water mains that transport water from treatment works to water storage reservoirs, with engineers working through the night this week to locate and fix the bursts.
The company has promised to update customers about compensation payments in the coming days.
