Southern Water accused of ‘failure’ after burst pipe leaves homes without running water on Christmas Day
Some homes in East Sussex were left without power on Christmas Day after a water main burst earlier this week.
Southern Water staff have been working around the clock to repair the burst water mains in Hastings since Tuesday and were still working to resolve the issue as of Boxing Day.
Areas where customers lost water supplies included TN34, TN35, TN37 and TN38.
The utility company said about 100 homes experienced low water pressure or intermittent water outages.
A statement issued on Boxing Day said: “These issues were primarily caused by increased demand on the network whilst reservoirs were refilled and a power outage at our Brede Water Supply Works which led to the plant being shut down for 25 minutes.”
“Whilst we cannot completely rule out the possibility of further outages, as we experienced yesterday, both water supply works are currently operating well, significantly reducing the risk of loss of pressure or a wider supply disruption.
“It will take several days for drinking water storage reservoirs to return to normal levels. Customers will be notified via our website and our team will open the bottled water station at Pelham Place starting at 9 a.m. as a precaution.”
The problem arose after warnings of a burst water north of Hastings were issued on December 23, and crews raced to fix the problem.
Although the pipe was repaired on Christmas Day, Southern Water told customers it had experienced a problem with a reservoir on its network, meaning the water level was lower than normal.
Water Operations Director Tania Flasck said on Christmas Day: “We know this is worrying news, especially on Christmas Day, and we want to reassure our customers that we are doing everything possible to return normal levels to normal at Fairlight Reservoir.”
Helena Dollimore, Labor MP for Hastings and Rye, said in a video post on social media platform
“What condition could our town’s pipe network be in that a single explosion would put us in this dangerous situation?”
he said Guard: “Our town’s water infrastructure is not fit for purpose after years of neglect and Southern Water needs to do better… After a massive five-day water outage last May when the same pipe burst and the environmental disaster last month when millions of plastic globules escaped from wastewater works, we can’t take it any longer.”
