‘Shambolic’ water company leaves hundreds of residents without water for eight days | UK News

A water company has apologised as households in East Sussex face supply misery for an eighth day.

Residents in Rye, Winchelsea and Camber and been left having to use bottled water after a burst pipe affected their water supplies.

Southern Water has apologised as it is now over a week since the issues began.

The company said while some customers should have a more stable supply, some residents in Camber were still without water, and it was investigating supply issues that emerged in Point Hill.

‘We’re sorry for the continued disruption and distress,’ it said.

Southern Water said the supply issues in Camber, which left residents either without water or with low pressure, were caused by problems it was experiencing feeding water into the households via tankers.

The company also said customers in Point Hill have no water.

It said it ‘identified an unknown leak’ last Friday and discovered the burst pipe off Udimore Reservoir on Sunday.

On Friday, bottled water stations reopened at Rye station and Western car park in Camber.

Madeleine Spanswick of the Owl Hotel in Camber said she had been forced to shut and spoke to the BBC.

She said: ‘We can’t open with no water…..Not having any warning didn’t help us at all. We just woke up with no water.

‘There was no notification, no text message, nothing at all, so we just had to close down and send staff home. That impacts on their wages.’

Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, commenting on customers in East Sussex being left without water for eight days, said: ‘This is shambolic situation that has left businesses and households in Rye stranded without the most basic amenity for over a week.

‘Local pubs, shops and schools have been forced to close.

‘And yet Southern Water have failed to deliver on their own promises and deadlines to sort this crisis. To make matters worse, this Conservative government and local Conservative MP have been missing in action leaving residents in the lurch.

‘To be frank, Southern Water need to grow a backbone and get a grip. They must immediately ensure emergency water supplies are reaching vulnerable residents, get the water supply back on and arrange compensation for affected residents and businesses.

‘But this is just the tip of the iceberg of a water industry and regulatory framework that is broken, working in the interest of fat-cat bosses and shareholders, not consumers.’

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