Thames Water has issued an apology after 17,000 residents in east London were left without running water for days during scorching summer heat following a burst main.
The disruption occurred on Chigwell Road, in Chigwell, Essex, on Sunday, August 9, and lasted until Friday, August 14, forcing households either side of the east London border to rely on bottled water.
Redbridge Council leader Kam Rai said at the time of the water outage that the supplier’s performance "did not meet" expectations.
He said the supply problem caused “significant and unacceptable inconvenience and distress” to local people. The issue was exacerbated by a summer heatwave and a second burst pipe at Daisy Lane in South Woodford.
During the week of August 9, temperatures reached into the mid-30s in parts of east London and Essex as the UK experienced its hottest summer on record.
The Labour-run council also criticised Thames Water for its communication with residents about the outage and its bottled water distribution to impacted households. Councillors said there had been “really serious congestion” at collection sites.
Families told The Standard, as they queued for hours for bottled supplies at Fairlop Waters Country Park, about not being able to shower for days and how elderly and younger family members were suffering in the heat without access to running water.
Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company that serves 16 million people across London and the Thames Valley, said it had provided updates on its website.
The private firm has issued an apology to east London residents impacted by the five day outage.
“We’re sorry to all customers who were left without water or experienced low pressure following the burst water main in Chigwell,” a spokesman for Thames Water said.
“We understand the frustration and disruption this caused, particularly for customers who have experienced previous supply issues in the area.
“Throughout the incident our teams worked around the clock to repair the damaged pipe, restore supplies, support vulnerable customers, deliver bottled water, operate bottled water stations and provide regular updates to customers.”
The apology comes amid discussions over the future of the debt-laden water company.
There is a possibility that Thames Water could be temporarily nationalised as ministers look to decide on a £10 billion rescue takeover put forward by lenders.
The Government has remained tight-lipped on any plans for a so-called special administration regime for Thames Water, despite the company warning it only has enough money until the year end.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveiled plans at the Labour Party conference this week for new laws that would pave the way for public ownership of failing water firms.
Redbridge councillors are now calling on Thames Water to meet with Mr Rai, the local authority leader, to discuss what steps are being taken to prevent future occurrences.
Elected representatives have also argued that Thames Water bosses should appear before the council’s external scrutiny committee to face questions.
A motion put forward at the council said that residents “deserve a full explanation of the causes of the incident [and] the adequacy of Thames Water’s response”.
A company spokesman said it “welcomed” the opportunity to meet with Redbridge representatives.
“We are committed to continuous improvement as we seek to improve the resilience of our network, strengthen our response arrangements and reduce the risk of similar incidents in future,” the spokesman added.
“As part of our biggest-ever upgrade of water infrastructure in 150 years, we are investing in the renewal and replacement of hundreds of kilometres of water mains across our network to improve resilience and reduce the risk of bursts.”
Council officers were part of relief efforts during the outage last month, delivering water bottles door-to-door on Thursday 14 August to the 2,700 homes that were then still affected.
Walk-up shower facilities were also made available to affected residents at Fullwell Cross Leisure Centre, Ashton Playing Fields, Mayfield Leisure Centre and Woodford Green Library & Gym.
