Water supply issues affecting up to 20,000 people

Water problems in Surrey and south London affecting up to 20,000 people due to a fault at a treatment works are continuing into a third day.

An estimated 4,600 homes are affected by the problem, with reports of no water, low pressure and intermittent supply.

SES Water said its Cheam treatment works had experienced a fault on Monday.

The company apologised to all those affected by the disruption.

Teresa Morgan, 61, said her water stopped on Monday and had not returned since.

She said residents in her sheltered housing scheme could not flush their toilets, wash their hands or cook, because without spare water there was no way to wash up.

"We have no idea how long this misery will go on for," she said.

SES Water said teams were "working round the clock" to resolve the issue, and hoped to restore supplies within the next 24 hours.

Residents had questioned why no response station was opened initially in the Cheam area, where the outage was first reported and where many residents were still without water on Tuesday, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Four bottled water stations were opened at Westcroft Leisure Centre, Cheam Library, Bourne Hall in Ewell and Upper High Street Car Park in Epsom.

SES said all stations would close at 22:00 GMT on Wednesday and reopen at 06:00 on Thursday.

Alan Powell, from Ewell, told BBC Radio Surrey he had first noticed supply issues on Monday at about 15:30 and they had had "very little or no water available".

He said he had been taking water from a water butt in his garden to flush the toilet, using a bucket.

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said a low pressure water supply had started again on Wednesday morning, but they had otherwise had about three hours of water supply from 19:00 on Monday until 05:00 on Wednesday.

Nonsuch High School for Girls, which has 1,500 students, had to close for the rest of term "with no clear timeline of when things would be fixed", its headteacher said.

Alexis Williamson-Jones said: "As headteacher of Nonsuch I had to make the decision to close the school on Tuesday on health and safety grounds of having no water for toilets, heating or cooking facilities."

Cheam High School also announced on its website it was closed on Wednesday.

Epsom and Ewell's MP Helen Maguire said: "It's completely unacceptable that my constituents have been left in the dark.

"Families are unable to shower, flush toilets, or do basic cleaning after more than 30 hours without supply."

She said she had urged SES Water to continue supporting its most vulnerable customers, including hospices, hospitals, and other residents on its pre-identified list.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs previously said it was in close contact with SES Water to ensure the company was taking urgent steps to support residents and resolve the issue as soon as possible.

It also said the government was introducing reforms to double the compensation water companies provide to customers for supply issues like these.

An SES Water spokesperson said significant progress had been made overnight in resolving the "complex fault" at the treatment works.

The company was working through detailed plans to "safely restore supplies as quickly as possible", the spokesperson said.

They added: "While many customers saw water supplies returning last night, some may still experience low pressure or no supply in certain areas today as we continue to stabilise the network.

"Storage levels remain low, and we ask customers to use water carefully to help preserve the network's capacity."

They said priorities were fixing the fault, getting water to the most vulnerable customers, and providing bottled water.

"We'd like to reassure all our customers that restoring their water remains our absolute priority, and we will continue to provide regular updates through our social media channels and website," the spokesperson added.

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