10s Of 1,000s In SE England Face Xmas Without Running Water After Rapid Thaw Bursts Pipes
Tens of thousands of households in parts of south-east England face the prospect of a Christmas without running water as suppliers struggle with burst pipes after a rapid thaw from last week’s freezing temperatures. South East Water admitted that it could not guarantee all customers in Kent and East Sussex that water would be restored by the Christmas weekend, after a threefold increase in leaks.
Also on Wednesday, Southern Water said there would be restrictions to water supplies for at least 48 hours in parts of Hampshire, including Southampton, Eastleigh and Winchester. It said: “We are currently facing significant pressure on our water supply in parts of Hampshire, caused by a combination of factors including leaks resulting from the recent ‘freeze/thaw’ event. “This has meant demand for water is outstripping the ability of our water treatment sites to keep taps running.”
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South East Water’s handling of the crisis was called “unacceptably bad and in some instances chaotic” by the former cabinet minister Greg Clark, the MP for Tunbridge Wells, which is one of the areas worst hit. People have been forced to rely of intermittent deliveries of emergency bottled water in towns and villages across Kent and East Sussex. On Tuesday night at a Tesco car park in the village of Pembury people queued for more than an hour for a bottled water delivery that did not arrive.
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Clark, a former secretary of state for both business and levelling up, called for the government to intervene “to inject better capability” in the company to resolve the crisis. He said the failure to deliver bottled water was “farcical”. The company’s incident director, Douglas Whitfield, told BBC Radio Kent that reservoirs were draining faster than they were filling because of leaks. Asked if he could guarantee water would be restored by Christmas, he said: “I don’t want to 100% commit to that at the moment. I can’t do that.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/21/thousands-in-south-east-england-face-christmas-without-running-water