Compensation
Recognising the impact on customers and communities, we will credit impacted customers as set out in our revised Customer Promise for 2025, guaranteeing a £50 payment per 12 hours without service, and £50 for each subsequent 12-hour period. This is over and above the current statutory amounts of £20 per 12 hours, and £10 per subsequent 24-hour period. The total payment to household customers is £250, further details will be confirmed by letter in the coming days.
Business customers will receive a £100 payment per 12 hours and £100 for each subsequent 12-hour period, again over and above the current statutory payments of £50 per 12 hours and £25 for each subsequent 12-hour period. The total payment to business customers is £500.
What happened?
On Sunday 20 April, the large 600mm diameter pipe that supplies raw water to Dousland Water Treatment Works failed suddenly and caused a burst.
This burst was caused by a build-up of pressure in the system which we believe was caused by a pump control fault, not ageing infrastructure.
We are investigating this further to get a better understanding of why it happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.
To repair this kind of pipe, a crane and specialist workers and materials are required. Teams worked through the night to carry out the complex repair, which was completed late on Monday 21 April.
There is a back-up water storage system for situations like this, designed to provide water for about 24 hours while a repair is carried out. As it was a bank holiday weekend, demand was higher than usual. Using network controls and reconfiguration, we were able to supply some customers with water from another treatment works. For other customers, we set up bottled water stations, or delivered bottled water to customers on the Priority Services Register.
The repair was completed by working overnight on Monday through to Tuesday evening, and then again from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, to refill the mains network and return supply to customers. Hundreds of miles of mains pipes containing around 9 million litres of water were carefully refilled and water quality checked as the water progressed through the network.
By 7am on Wednesday 23 April supply was largely reinstated to customers. However, refilling the mains involves complex pressure issues and air in the system can delay full supply. In a few small, isolated parts of the network, customers were still experiencing low pressure or no supply.
Our teams attended these areas to help remove air from pipes so that pressure returned to normal and on the morning of Thursday 24 April we confirmed our network was back to normal and supply is back to what it should be.
We will of course continue to support any customers who need it and if there are any isolated issues we encourage customers to contact us so we can help.
We are very sorry this happened and really appreciate the kindness customers have shown to our teams throughout.
In summary:
- Our teams worked for 24 hours on a complex repair to a burst pipe which was caused by a build-up of pressure in the system
- We refilled the mains system as fast as we could, controlling for pressure and water quality
- Where possible, customers were supplied with water from another water treatment works
- We provided four bottled water stations for customers without supply
- We delivered bottled water to vulnerable customers
- We updated customers throughout each day on the website, via socials, SMS and Voice Blast
- Our teams are helping customers who are still experiencing problems, largely due to air within the system
Latest update
24th April 2025
Update: 07:45
Our network is back to normal and supply is back to what it should be. Although this was a complex situation, our teams have worked very hard to restore supply, provide support to our customers and help with any isolated issues. We are very sorry this happened and really appreciate the kindness customers have shown to our teams throughout.
Discoloured water
Discolouration is normally short lived following repairs to our network and should clear after running your cold kitchen tap.
For businesses impacted by the water outage
Businesses impacted by the incident can call a dedicated helpline on 03332 343 293 for support. Lines are open Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm.
