Residents in Rye, Camber and Winchelsea face water supply misery

Residents in parts of East Sussex are facing disruption to fresh water supplies for a sixth day after a pipe burst.

Southern Water said it was taking longer than anticipated to fix the leak which is affecting supplies in Rye, Winchelsea and Camber.

The company said about 2,100 properties should have their supplies back to normal by Thursday evening.

Bottled water stations are open at Rye station and Western car park in Camber.

In a statement on Thursday Southern Water said 600 properties in Winchelsea should be experiencing a return to normal service, with another 1,500 in Rye Harbour and Point Hill following by 20:00 BST.

The company added: "For some 950 customers in Camber and 1,400 in Rye, supplies should stabilise overnight thanks to an improved programme of tankers."

About 1,400 properties were being supplied by water tankers, Southern Water said on Wednesday.

The company said it "identified an unknown leak" on Friday and discovered the burst pipe off Udimore Reservoir on Sunday.

Bob Brown, from Winchelsea, said: "There has been no communication. The problem with the tankering system is that the area being supplied is quite large and at best you get a trickle, and a lot of the time you don't get anything at all."

Judith Blincow, who runs the Mermaid Inn in Rye, told BBC Radio Sussex: "We lost our water again this morning [Thursday). We've had about two-and-a-half days without, and obviously we have to close.

"It's an absolute nightmare, and the lack of communication is a killer."

She said she had given guests booked into the Mermaid Inn the option of staying, with only bottled water.

"We can't run the kitchens and the combi-ovens, which require water to heat up. We can't use the dishwashers.

"The biggest thing is how do the staff wash their hands."

Tim McMahon, Southern Water's director for water, said: "We have had to reconfigure the whole system and it's taken a lot longer for the area to return back to normal pressures."

He said he was "confident" supplies would be returned on Thursday, but the burst water main may not be repaired for "a few days", meaning some customers could still occasionally be without water or face lower water pressure.

A Southern Water spokesman said: "We will continue to carry out bottled water deliveries to customers on our priority services register throughout the day."

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