Thames Water is offering bottled water to thousands of south Londoners on Thursday as households wake up to a second day without supplies. In an early morning update, the water company said engineers were working around the clock to fix burst pipes, but some residents may “still be affected”. Those without water are encouraged to collect bottled water from Sainsbury’s in Southend Lane, Sydenham, from 8:30am, where Thames Water has set up a bottled water station.
The water company was forced to apologise to people who tried to collect bottled water on Wednesday “as we had to close the site due to a security incident.”. Meanwhile, some affected customers may be waking up to low pressure and cloudy-looking water coming from the taps. Thames Water assured customers: “As your water returns, you may notice your water is cloudy or has bubbles in it, this is due to air trapped in the pipes and is still safe to drink.”.
The ongoing chaos comes after burst pipes in south London left thousands without running water in postcodes SE19, SE20, SE23, SE26, SE27 & SW16 on Wednesday. Schools were reportedly forced to close early, while local households were forced to turn to bottled water after taps ran dry. Frustrated residents took to social media at the time, demanding Thames Water urgently take action to ensure running water was reinstated, as many couldn’t even flush the toilet.
“There is no supply. There is no water at all. We can’t go to the toilet. Will our bills be reduced? Prices have just been raised!” wrote one on social media. Local MPs have also stepped in, slamming Thames Water for their “unsatisfactory” response. Ellie Reeves, MP for Lewisham West and East Dulwich, demanded an urgent update after claiming to have received periodic emails from Thames Water staff.
Sharing her letter on social media, Ms Reeves criticised Thames Water for failing to provide a time frame, as well as inadequate bottled water support. She added: “The outage comes at a time when you have informed many of my constituents that their water bills will rise significantly. At a time when many people are already struggling, this outage on top of increasing bills is extremely concerning.”.
