Water Supply Restored for Thousands Following Outage

The primary water supply has been re-established for numerous households following an interruption that began on Wednesday morning. Southern Water confirmed the resolution of an issue at its Testwood Water Supply Works in Totton, Hampshire, indicating that all associated storage reservoirs were in the process of refilling. The company reported that water service had been reinstated for 58,000 affected properties across areas including Southampton, Eastleigh, Romsey, and the New Forest around 02:00 GMT. Despite this, three bottled water distribution points are scheduled to open this morning at 0800. Tim McMahon, the managing director, stated: “We are sorry for the disruption caused to customers over the last two days, and would like to thank them for their patience as we worked to restore supply. We also apologise to those customers on the priority services register who had to wait an unacceptably long time to receive their water deliveries. We’ll review this incident carefully and learn the lessons to improve our processes.” Bottled water stations are scheduled to commence operations from 08:00. It is possible that some individuals might observe airlocks within their plumbing systems as their water supply resumes. The water utility advised: “If running taps does not resolve it they can call Southern Water and we will arrange for a plumber to call. Similarly, when taps are first run following an outage, discoloured water is normal.” Mr. McMahon further mentioned that the Testwood facility was “very old” and that an investment of £250m was being allocated over seven years to “bringing it up to standard.” Elaborating on the cause of the supply issues, he stated: “Through some of those planned works on Tuesday, when we were starting up the site, we were having problems getting it going and we had some dirty water in that part of the site. We couldn’t let that go forward, we can’t put it into supply, it’s illegal, we wouldn’t do it and the site shut down, and then we had to get rid of that water and that took about 24 hours. Also, because it’s an old site it takes time to get it working and that’s what we’ve been working very hard on.” A briefing provided to local authorities and politicians on Wednesday indicated that the issues stemmed from the ultraviolet (UV) disinfectant treatment system at the facility. An unnamed attendee remarked: “Although there were parts on site to fix the UV lamps, there had to be a complete shutdown in order to put the new lamps in.” Ashley Marshman, the company’s head of customer service, commented in a statement: “It’s not good enough for our customers and we accept that. We need to do better in setting up our bottled water stations quicker and getting customers the supply they need.” Previously, customers had reported waiting in queues for two hours to receive complimentary bottled water at the emergency distribution points. Darren Talbot, a resident of Holbury, stated that his household was registered on Southern Water’s priority services list, yet a bottled water delivery had not reached them. His son, Jaxxon, underwent a gastrostomy procedure earlier in 2024, necessitating water to ensure the cleanliness of the tube that delivers food directly into his stomach. Mr. Talbot commented: “Everyone’s already juggling family, work, presents. You throw this in the mix, you’ve got to be Superman or Superwoman to make it happen.” This service interruption coincided with the revelation that households supplied by Southern Water would experience a 53% increase in their bills over the forthcoming five years, representing the most significant rise nationwide. For further updates, individuals can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content found on external websites. Information regarding our policy on external linking is available.