Five thousand homes in South London postcodes face water outages. Residents are angry about the poor communication.
Five thousand homes are affected across several postcodes: SE19, SE20, SE23, SE26, SE27, and SW16. Residents grew angry, unable to shower or use toilets.
Thames Water said a pipe burst on Alleyn Road in Dulwich. Flooding also hit Crystal Palace pumping station. Engineers are working to resolve this.
Neil Buchanan, 43, lives in West Norwood and learned about the outage at 6 PM. His girlfriend asked him to buy water, but the shops were already low on supply.
Neil could not work, shower, or brush his teeth. Bathrooms were unusable. Water returned, but pressure was low. He expects more problems today.
Some people lacked water since 4 PM. Neil thinks it is crazy that Londoners went twenty hours without water. Thames Water lacks a good reputation, so people expect problems.
The company’s website has limited information with updates every four hours. He said there is a lack of transparency and that communication is poor.
Lambeth council is talking to schools facing water issues. Bottled water is being delivered to high-risk people. They are setting up a water hub today for all impacted residents.
Eugenie Lockett, 49, lives in Sydenham, and her day was ruined by no water. She had no running water since early morning, affecting other folks too.
She filled a jug of water out of habit, which is all she now has. She hopes supermarkets deliver water because Thames Water won’t supply bottles, she claims.
Eugenie canceled her dental appointment because she couldn’t get ready to leave. She was embarrassed to leave grimy, and her day was ruined because of this.
Many South Londoners are angry and voiced their anger on social media. One person asked about bottled water, writing, “We cannot wash”.
Another person complained about updates, noting that the website hadn’t updated for 14 hours. Thames Water apologized for the water loss and pressure issues.
The company said its team worked overnight to fix the pipe and repair the leak at Crystal Palace. Engineers will work throughout today, they stated.
Thames Water said water might look cloudy or have bubbles from air trapped in pipes. However, they reassured everyone that the water is safe to drink.
Ofwat launched an investigation due to delayed environmental schemes. Thames Water pledged to do 812 actions as part of a wider program.
The schemes needed to meet regulations due between 2020 and 2025. But Thames Water said they’d complete only about 100 by March.