Water supplies returning to thousands after fault

Mains water is gradually returning to thousands of homes after supplies were lost on Wednesday morning.

Southern Water said it had fixed the problem at the Testwood Water Supply Works in Totton, Hampshire, overnight and was restocking reservoirs.

About 58,000 properties were affected in parts of Southampton, Eastleigh, Romsey and the New Forest, the firm said.

Some customers have reported queuing for two hours for free bottled water at three emergency stations.

Plamen Bonchev, who was in the queue at a station in Totton, said: "It's not great in the 21st Century that we are without water.

"It's quite horrendous but there is nothing we can do. We complain but nothing happens."

Michael Mintram, who collected water in Eastleigh, said: "It's happened before and I'm just thinking: come on, what century do we live in?"

Long queues were also reported at a third station at Staplewood Football Development Centre in Marchwood.

Some vulnerable customers, who were on the firm's priority list for deliveries of bottled water, said nothing had arrived.

Karen, a BBC Radio Solent listener from Totton, said: "I would love to know where they have been in the last 24 hours because there's been no sign of them here."

University Hospital Southampton - the city's main hospital site - said it was distributing bottles to parts of its campus which had no mains supply.

The firm has so far given few details of the cause of the issue, which it said was a "fault at our Testwood Supply Works, which was caused by some concerns around water quality".

The BBC understands the site was shut down to install new ultraviolet lamps, which sterilise supplies.

Reservoirs were drained and had to be refilled, it was reported.

A Southern Water spokesperson said: "Currently just under 25,000 homes and businesses (roughly 38%) will be starting to see supply resume.

"We are working hard to restore supplies to everyone impacted and are hoping to have everyone on supply by the end of the day."

Head of customer service Ashley Marshman said: "It's not good enough for our customers and we accept that.

"We need to do better in setting up our bottled water stations quicker and getting customers the supply they need."

The disruption came as households served by Southern Water discovered their bills would rise by 53% over the next five years - the highest increase in the country.

That is higher than the average bill increase of 36% across England and Wales.

The average annual bill will rise from £420 to £642 in 2029.

Regulator Ofwat said the increases for all water companies would pay for infrastructure improvements.

The firm will be the first water company to appear before an MPs' inquiry to discuss its performance and finances, it has been announced.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee said it would probe the reasons for the outages as well as assessing executives' bonuses and shareholder dividends.

Southern Water chief executive Lawrence Gosden was given a £764,000 pay package earlier this year, including an £183,600 bonus.

Chief financial officer Stuart Ledger received a £128,000 bonus, taking his total pay to £610,000, the BBC reported in July.

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