Water returning after burst pipe closes schools

Thousands of homes left without water due to a burst pipe should have supplies reconnected today, a water company says.

Three schools were closed with around 3,000 properties affected in Woodland View, Wroughton, and Old Town in Swindon on Wednesday. The Old Town GP surgery also cancelled all face-to-face appointments.

Thames Water apologised and said it had deployed six engineers along with water tankers.

It added that water supply will return "across the day".

The Thames Water spokesperson said: “Our engineers have successfully isolated the burst mains pipe and we expect water supply to return to our customers across the day.

"We are sorry to those who are still experiencing low pressure or no water."

Nik Psarras, from Kingsmead Care Home, said staff had not been able to bathe their residents all morning.

"We've been struggling - we have been for the last few hours," Mr Psarras said.

"We had to get bottled water from the supermarket."

He said communication on the situation from Thames Water has been "pretty poor" after trying to get in contact with them from 06:30 BST.

"They should have open lines so care homes and schools can get more information," he added.

King William Street Primary and Lethbridge Primary in Old Town have shut.

Commonweal Secondary was only open to 260 students sitting GCSE and A-Level exams, whilst others studied remotely.

Charles Drew, the headteacher, said it is the third time the school has experienced this type of issue.

He praised his staff for their "big reorganisation".

“I think things went incredibly smoothly, given the obstacles that we were facing," he said.

"I don’t feel that the students who did their exams this morning were in any way significantly disadvantaged by what happened, and that is ultimately the measure of success.

"They were able to do their exams and have the best opportunity to succeed."

Water has since returned to the site at a reduced pressure.

Liz Henty, the owner of Food Magpie in Old Town, said her business has been "completely empty" all morning.

Despite this, she says she will still have to pay rent, utilities and staff wages for the day.

"We'll have a day with no income," she said, and acknowledged that other businesses in the area are in the same situation.

She added that there was "no communication" from Thames Water, and she spent a lot of time following updates from other members of the community on Facebook.

Thames Water said its engineers are working to isolate the pipe, which burst in the early hours of the morning, so they can carry out the repair.

A spokesperson added: "We also have tankers in the area who are supplementing our network of pipes with water as we work to keep the taps flowing for our customers.”

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