More than 32,000 homes are still without water in East Sussex after a main burst three days ago, with one hotel resorting to flushing its toilets with sea water.
Southern Water said in an update on Sunday morning it was “very sorry” that residents of St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings and in Westfield were still without water. Four water bottle stations have been set up, delivering bottled water to more than 6,000 customers on its priority list.
The stations are operating at Asda and Tesco in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sea Road in Hastings and Hastings Academy in Hastings.
According to the water firm, the burst was repaired on Saturday, but the service now has to be “restarted”. The company said on Sunday morning: “Following the repair of the burst main our teams have been working hard to get our treatment works at Beauport up and running, which it is now, but it will take some time for water supply to return.”
This weekend marks the annual four-day Jack In The Green Festival in Hastings, described as “one of the biggest weekends of the year”. East Sussex County Councillor Godfrey Daniel said the impact on businesses in Hastings will be “drastic”, adding that one hotel in Hastings has resorted to flushing toilets with sea water.
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The company said the burst main has been repaired by now needs to be "restarted" (Getty Images)The White Rock Theatre in Hastings closed its doors on Friday due to the water supply issue, cancelling the Millie’s Nightclub event – a pop-up nightclub for adults with learning disabilities, which was due to take place on Friday.
The theatre said it is “deeply disappointing” that the issue coincided with the annual celebrations, while Summerfields Leisure Centre posted on Facebook saying it was still closed on Sunday morning, “until the situation changes”.
Schools, a leisure centre and a theatre in the area have also been forced to close. Churchwood Primary Academy and St Paul’s Church of England Academy in St Leonards remained closed on Friday. Southern Water shared that the burst main is located in Keeper’s Wood, near the A21, “deep in woodland”, making it difficult for crews and machinery to reach it.
A spokesperson for Southern Water said on Saturday they were “deeply sorry” for the loss of supply and they have been “working around the clock to not only fix the issue, but also do all we can to help our customers, especially those who are vulnerable”.
They said: “If you are a vulnerable customer, or need access to water for medical reasons, and have not received a water delivery or had yours stolen, please call 0330 303 0368 to let us know we need to help. We use bottled water stations to help us get water to as many of our customers as quickly as we can.
“In response to feedback, we opened a fourth station today and are grateful to our own people and others for their hard work volunteering and the various businesses letting us use their car parks.
“We do appreciate not everyone can get to them and we’re working with local communities to find additional ways to ensure access to water. It’s worth noting we also have 21 tankers in the area supplying health care venues, care homes and other sites of importance.
“Our engineering teams worked through the night to remove the broken pipe and replace it. Now the repair is completed we are recharging our network. It’s a complicated process getting everything going again, so this will take time and we expect disruption to continue over the weekend. We will keep on doing all we can to support customers in the meantime."
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