Tens of thousands of frustrated residents in East Sussex are without water for a fourth day after a pipe burst in a remote forest.
Southern Water said the issue has now been resolved but that it will take “some time” to restore supplies.
“As soon as the water passes rigorous quality tests, the supply will begin to return to customers,” he said.
More than 32,000 properties are without supplies in St Leonards and parts of Hastings, with four bottle stations set up across the towns.
Families and businesses expressed anger at the length of the outage, which came over the bank holiday weekend when Hastings hosts several busy events.
Southern Water said it was “very sorry” and crews are delivering water to more than 6,000 vulnerable customers.
However, a woman living in a shelter told Sky News that her water had been stolen from the car park.
“People came from outside and stopped their cars, ran in, got water and left,” said the woman – who did not reveal her name.
Photo: Água do Sul
Other vulnerable customers said supplies were not delivered as promised.
Fixing the pipe was complicated because it was in a remote location in dense forest, according to the water company — which said people would be compensated “fairly and proportionately.”
“We are hopeful that water supplies can begin to gradually return throughout Sunday, with different areas receiving water at different times,” Southern Water said.
Repair efforts were complicated because the damaged pipe was in dense forest. Photo: Água do Sul
At 9:30 a.m. Sunday, the water company said it was “working hard to get our treatment plants in Beauport up and running, which they are now, but it will take some time for the water supply to return.”
The outage began Thursday and forced some schools to close, as well as businesses like Hastings’ White Rock Theater.
East Sussex county councilor Godfrey Daniel said the effect on businesses would be “drastic” and that one hotel was having to flush toilets with seawater.
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Festival chairman Stuart Ledger said the water ran out on one of the busiest weekends
Hastings’ Jack In The Green Festival takes place this weekend, as does the May Day Bike Run, bringing thousands of people to the area.
Festival chairman Keith Leech said it was the latest in a catalog of mistakes by Southern Water.
He told Sky News: “This year Southern Water managed to completely close our beach because it was covered in sewage.
“They managed to flood our city center because they couldn’t handle the water coming through and now they’ve managed to completely cut off our water supply on the biggest weekend of the year.”
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Southern Water finance chief Stuart Ledger said the company was not currently making a profit and was “putting everything into the network”.
The outage comes amid renewed scrutiny on water companies due to recent discharge of sewage into the sea and riversas well as the dire financial situation at Thames Waterthe largest supplier in the country.
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