Residents had been getting water from tanks and stand pipes

The company says repair work was completed on Tuesday night so water supplies to the 4,000 affected homes around Southwark, including East Dulwich and Peckham, should be "returning to normal".

Burst underground pipes caused by clay soil drying out during the hot summer were blamed for the problem which left residents without water for five days.

John Sexton, managing director of Thames Water, has apologised to all the customers "who have had to put up with the inconvenience".

'Isolated problems'

He said: "The good news is that our repairs are now complete and supplies are quickly returning to normal, though it may take a few more hours for pressure to fully rebuild in the local distribution network.

"We certainly expect everybody to be back in supply by breakfast time tomorrow (Wednesday).

"There may be isolated problems with airlocks in the system. Customers can cure this by turning their inside stopcock on and off four or five times.

"Another possible solution is to let the tap run for a few minutes."

Thames Water said engineers from the company have worked round the clock to restore supplies.