East Sussex burst water pipe has been repaired, says Southern Water

Southern Water have said this evening (Sunday 5 May) that the burst pipe affecting 32,000 properties, leaving homes and businesses without running water, has been repaired. A leak had been an ongoing problem since Thursday night.

However, owing to depleted reservoirs it might take until Monday morning for all homes to have the supply fully restored.

Southern Water said in a statement: “Mains water supply continues to be gradually restored in St Leonards and Hastings as our water supply works at Beauport fills the local network with treated water.

“Customers in the west of the affected area and lower-lying areas nearest to Beauport, (west and central areas of St Leonards-on-Sea, west Hastings and rural areas around Westfield), should see supplies return gradually during the rest of Sunday. Of the properties in this category, approximately half are already experiencing either a full, or intermittent, return to service.

“Customers in the east (north of Hollington and east Hastings and rural areas east of Hastings) should start to see their supplies return by Monday morning as water levels in the network continue to rise overnight.

“Supplies to Conquest Hospital in Hastings have been maintained throughout the incident.

“Our teams have worked around the clock to find a fix the burst water main, get bottled water to customers via collection points around the town and deliver it to the doors of more than 9,000 people on our Priority Services Register. If you are on this list and have not yet received water, please contact please call 0330 303 0368.

“So far, we’ve delivered more than 850,000 litres of water to the homes of those customers who need additional support.

“Meanwhile, customers have been able to collect water from one of our four bottled water stations. Details of these are on our website. The stations close at 9pm today and will reopen at 8am tomorrow.

“As supplies return to homes and businesses, customers may notice their water is cloudy. This is normally caused by air bubbles, which can be seen rising from the bottom of a glass of the water as it clears.

“Discoloration can also occur – this is normally caused by harmless iron deposits in the pipes. It can be remedied by running the kitchen tap, which is usually the first on the household system, until the water runs clear.

“More information on what to do when your supplies return after an outage can be found on our website, and we’ve also posted guidance on our social media channels.”