Thames Water apologises for burst water pipe leaving thousands without water in south London

Thousands of homes and businesses in south London have been left without water or have reduced supply after a pipe burst in the Crystal Palace area.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm here in Sydenham on Southend Lane where Thames Water have set up a water bottle

00:07station since yesterday after a burst pipe left thousands of residents in the area without

00:13water or with low water pressure. The incident occurred on February the 12th but as of the

00:20morning of February the 13th many local residents are still experiencing low water pressure

00:28or have no water at all. As you can see behind me people queuing up to pick up water bottles.

00:34Thames Water has since apologised to customers stating that engineers had located the source

00:39of the leak and were working to restore water to customers and fix the pipe as soon as possible.

00:45Now the affected post goes SE19, SE20, SE23, SE26 and 27 and SW17 as well. Now Thames Water

00:55has said they are sorry for customers in Crystal Palace and Sydenham who are experiencing low

01:00water pressure or no water due to a burst pipe. They also confirmed that tankers had

01:06been deployed to infuse network with water and impacted properties should see their water

01:13supply return over the course of the day. Now that was yesterday and as of today people

01:18still don't have water. The company is also contacting customers who had pre-registered

01:24as having special requirements such as being medically reliant on water to ensure they

01:30receive specific help and support. Now all of this isn't coming at a great time for Thames

01:36Water. It comes just as the company has requested a £3 billion bailout and asked to raise bills

01:43by 53% for customers despite criticisms of the services and water spillages. Now Ofwat

01:50did reject the 53% rise but did confirm that water bills could rise by 35%. Here is what

01:58locals in Crystal Palace had to say about Thames Water and potential bill rises.

02:05I'm disabled and I've got arthritis so I need quite a lot of baths and things to help me

02:13so I think it would be quite difficult for me.

02:16It's not good. Especially already in the cost of living crisis that we're already in. I think it's going to leave a lot of

02:22work class people specifically very devastated. So I think it is important that we look after

02:30our environment and I think there is significant investment required because our waterways

02:39and our sewers are ancient. Now additionally bottled water is being delivered to customers

02:46as well on the priority services register which does include 11 care homes and 29 schools

02:53in South East London that have been affected by the disruption.