Villagers are still struggling to access running water after they were cut off on December 23 and left without tap water on Christmas Day. Families in Llandogo and Trellech in Monmouthshire have been badly affected, with some having to collect water from a stream just to flush their toilets.
Welsh Water has been providing bottled water to residents and says that the "vast majority" of customers have water - but as of Tuesday afternoon, many were still struggling to get a consistent supply. Jonathan Parsley, who lives in Llandogo with his wife Skye, said: "Everyone has had to travel to Monmouth to collect bottles of water from the Premier Inn car park. They’ve made the odd delivery to ‘vulnerable’ people but sadly we don’t fall into that category so neighbours have kindly been delivering to us.
"We were fortunate enough to travel to family on Christmas so we didn’t suffer, I can’t imagine how it must’ve been for our neighbours though struggling without water. We are having to collect water from a nearby stream so we can flush the toilet. If it wasn’t for the stream for us nearby would been a total nightmare. I do think that like last time they could have done with dropping water off or at least put a collection station nearer than a 20-mile round trip."
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Welsh Water has been giving updates on the situation. At 1.45pm, the water company issued this statement: "Our teams have made significant progress overnight and have restored supplies to the vast majority of customers in the Trellech and Llandogo areas of Monmouthshire. We apologise again for the inconvenience caused to our customers and would like to reassure them that our teams have been working tirelessly to restore services to all as quickly as they can. Bottled water continues to be available as a precautionary measure at Premier Inn, Portal Rd, Monmouth NP25 5FP."
On Christmas Day, many households had no water at all. One resident commented on Facebook that "Santa forgot to bring water." Several residents said that their water supply had come back on in the early hours of the night on Tuesday, December 27, but some report still being without water after midday. When Welsh Water announced that water supply had resumed, several people said it had "just gone off" again, still had a reduced flow, or was coming through discoloured and dirty.
Before Welsh Water started delivering water directly to Llandogo, one resident managed to pick up a pallet of it from the Premier Inn site where Welsh Water was supplying it, and bring it to the village hall in Llandogo. Wye Valley Flowers, based in St Briavels, offered the facilities at their glamping site - including a warm shower room, washing machine and drinking water - for public use.
Local councillor Ian Mawdsley told residents: "Welsh Water have now delivered a pallet and half to the Village Hall in Llandogo. Social media and the WW alert are being updated. According to the Operations Manager they are currently pressuring the system but are going carefully so as not to blow the system. I can confirm there are tankers at the pumping station so hopefully the latest prediction of water fully back on for everyone will come to pass. When everything has been restored there clearly needs to be accountability and ‘lessons learned’ for all concerned parties."
Cllr Mawdsley also said that he had spoken with their MP, David Davies, who got in contact with the CEO of Welsh Water. Updates can be found on the Welsh Water website.
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