Monmouthshire homes without water on Christmas Day

Some homes in south-east Wales were left without water on Christmas Day.

Several villages south of Monmouth were affected, including Trellech and Llandogo.

People Llandogo have said their water had been off for more than 24 hours and were "appalled".

Welsh Water apologised and said the issues were caused by "air locks" in the network as it re-pressurises and its teams had been working throughout the night.

It was not clear how many houses were affected.

Rob Flanagan, 68, from Warwick, had intended to stay in Monmouthshire until Wednesday, but said he may leave early because of the lack of water.

"We were told it would be back yesterday afternoon, then this morning and now they are saying this afternoon," he said.

"My sister-in-law's partner has had to fill buckets of water down from the village to flush the toilet, there are seven of us in the house, including a five-year-old, it is just not on."

He added his wife had gone to Monmouth to fetch bottled water, and hoped that they could have their Christmas dinner as planned.

"We're hopeful we will be able to cook, but no one will be able to shower - we will just have to smell together."

Matthew Browning, 62, also from Llandogo, said he and his wife have had no water for almost two days and were "desperate" for a shower.

Their son picked them up some water supplied by Welsh Water and Mr Browning said he was taking water from their outside swimming pool by the bucket load for the toilets.

He said: "It's not Christmas as usual, you can't do the usual things that you want to do, like a shower and a shave.

"Happy smelly Christmas as my wife told everyone in the village".

Welsh Water said it was "extremely sorry" for the inconvenience caused and said bottled water was being delivered to priority customers.

It added a bottled water station at Premier Inn on Portal Road in Monmouth had been replenished.

Matthew Dickens, 36, from near Tintern, said he held off going to get any water as he was told supplies would be restored on Christmas Eve.

"We went urgently to get water late last night, and it's a good thing we did, otherwise we wouldn't have had any water this morning," he said.

"We're lucky we've got a stream across the road, so we use that for the toilet."

Mr Dickins said his parents were visiting his family for Christmas.

He said: "We are having problems, we're trying to use all the bottled water to cook and have a normal Christmas as possible, but it's getting tricky with the toilet, and washing hands in the tap.

"You don't realise how many times you use water, until something like this happens."

The problems in Monmouthshire follow separate issues in mid and west Wales, where thousands of people were left without water after pipes burst.

Welsh Water said a "handful" of homes in Ceredigion were still without water on Christmas Eve.

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