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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Ajit Niranjan

‘These water companies have got a damn nerve’: anger in England as 58,000 homes lose supply while bills surge

A woman picks up a packet of water bottles
Schools and businesses were forced to shut after the water supply was lost, and long queues formed at bottled water collection sites. Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian

“It feels awful,” said Samantha Hargreaves as she trundled her bottle-laden trolley past queues of cars waiting for drinking water in an Asda car park. It was the second year in a row that her water supply had been cut off shortly before Christmas, and she was loading up her car with extra bottles to give to less mobile neighbours.

“There’s quite a few of us who are struggling,” said Hargreaves, a 31-year-old community healthcare assistant.

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