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. 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 24 hours while a repair is carried out. As it was a bank holiday weekend, demand was higher than usual. Using network controls, 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.
Once the repair was complete, our teams worked through the night into Wednesday morning to refill the mains network and return supply to customers. Tens of thousands of kilometres of mains pipes containing around 9 million litres of water were carefully refilled and water quality checked at different points in the network.
By 8am on Wednesday 23 April the 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 are still experiencing low pressure or no supply. Our teams are attending these areas to help remove air from pipes so that pressure returns to normal.
In summary:
- Our teams worked for 24 hours on a complex repair to the burst supply pipe
- 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
- Our teams are helping customers who are still experiencing problems, largely due to air within the system
Latest update
23rd April 2025
Update: 07:30
We are pleased to say that customers should now be back in supply. We want to apologise again for the inconvenience this has caused, but we would also like to thank all of our customers for their patience and kindness to our teams on the ground providing bottled water.
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.
