Water supply restored six days after pipes burst

The water supply has been restored to households in east London and Essex which had been without water for six days due to a series of burst pipes in the area, Thames Water has said.

The bursts affected about 10,000 homes in Chigwell, Romford, Leytonstone, Redbridge, South Woodford, Buckhurst Hill, Loughton and parts of Essex.

Thames Water said engineers had now repaired all the pipes, although some customers will experience low pressure into Friday evening.

The firm has been criticised over its communication with customers and issues with the supply of bottled water to residents. Thames Water has apologised.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We know how difficult and frustrating this has been for affected customers and we'd like to thank them for their patience while our teams worked to restore supplies.

"Once the incident is fully resolved, we will carry out a detailed review to understand what happened, identify any improvements needed and use what we learn to help strengthen the network and reduce the risk of similar disruption in the future."

Engineers are remaining on site to try and release trapped air from the network, monitor supplies and take further action if needed, the spokesperson added.

Redbridge councillor Jo Blackman, cabinet member for environment and neighbourhoods, told BBC Radio London that 600 homes were still without water on Friday morning, six days after the pipes burst.

She also said Thames Water had not opened as many distribution sites for bottled water as she had hoped and that there was "really serious congestion" at the ones that were open.

The Labour councillor added that not having water during the heatwave had been "really hard" and that the council had opened up its leisure centres to the public to use the showers.

Thames Water previously said it had provided regular updates on its website, including details of repair progress, restoration of supplies and the opening of bottled water stations,.

It also said that people on the Priority Services Register had received bottled water deliveries "where needed".

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