UK weather: thousands still without water in England and Wales

Thousands of properties across the UK are still without water after a rapid thaw caused pipes to burst.

The water supply problems, triggered by last week’s extreme weather, have led to school closures and emergency water distribution in parts of London.

About 5,000 homes are without water in Kent, thousands of properties are affected in Wales, and a further 12,000 homes in the capital lost water overnight, the BBC reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Water companies have urged customers who do have water to use as little as possible until the issues are resolved.

“We are putting as much extra water as we can into our local networks and fixing leaks and bursts as quickly as possible,” said Thames Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Affinity Water in a joint statement.

“We sincerely apologise to all those who are currently without water or experiencing low pressure.”

Thames Water has faced criticism after a total of up to 20,000 properties in London and the Thames Valley had their supplies cut off over the weekend, The Guardian says.

Disgruntled customers took to Twitter to complain about the lack of information, after some homes were left without water for more than 48 hours.

Others have rallied to help their neighbours, offering to collect water for elderly or disabled people.

Meanwhile, the RAF has been called in to deliver emergency supplies to parts of Cumbria that have been cut off by the extreme weather.

Helicopters will drop food, coal, logs and electrical heating appliances to isolated areas where some people have been snowed in for five days, Sky News reports.