Residents have been queuing for up to two hours to get bottled water as thousands of homes in Hampshire are still without supplies following a “technical issue”.
The disruption comes as households served by Southern Water discovered their bills would see the highest increase in the country.
Homes in Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Totton, and parts of the New Forest have experienced a loss of water or low pressure – and more than 30 schools will remain closed on Thursday.
It is understood that water supplies are not expected to return to houses until later on Thursday and into Friday morning.
Tankers were deployed on Wednesday to supply water for Southampton General Hospital.
The issue began on Wednesday morning after Southern Water issued an update confirming there was a technical problem at the Testwood water supply works preventing water from leaving the site.
The company said in a statement on Thursday morning that the issue had been solved and customers will start to be reconnected later in the day.
We're working to restore supplies in affected areas in Hampshire. We've fixed the issue and we’re now filling up our reservoir. Your water may be restored today.
— Southern Water (@SouthernWater) December 19, 2024
Water station locations will be confirmed ASAP. We’re sorry for the disruption.
Latest: https://t.co/rNTMgrvCTb pic.twitter.com/boNywh4QsX
It came as regulator Ofwat announced that Southern Water customers will face a 53% increase in bills over the next five years – significantly higher than the average bill increase of 36% across England and Wales.
Residents have described queuing for up to two hours to reach one of three bottle distribution centres at the Asda supermarket in Totton.
Long queues of cars could be seen causing congestion in the surrounding streets, while some had walked for up to three miles to collect their allocation of water.
Richard Hallett told the PA news agency: “I’m disgusted, It has taken me two hours to get here.
“It’s disgraceful, they haven’t organised anything at all, I came home last night and realised we didn’t have any water and now the bill rise is just salt in the wounds.”
Aiden, who did not want to give a surname, said: “I have had to walk two or three miles because the bus broke down as well.
“It would help if there was more communication, some kind of notification of what is happening.
“The increase in bills is quite difficult to deal with.”
Plamen Bonchev said: “It’s not great in the 21st century that we are without water.
“It’s quite horrendous but there is nothing we can do, we complain but nothing happens.”
Steve Watts, who was stuck in traffic, said: “They should have had a spare reservoir, I am not happy with them at all and it’s disgusting they’re putting the bills up.”
Another customer said: “I am not happy because it cost me £2.80 for a bottle of water because they gave me some but it’s not enough.”
Dominc Lebrook, 24, said: “We just walked down, we’re a couple of miles away, because the traffic is pretty bad.”
Deniss Kovpajevs said: “It ruined my day completely, I had plans, I can’t take a shower, do my chores.
“The bills going up, you’re meant to provide a good service, right?”
Southern Water said in a statement: “We continue to work hard to restore supplies to Southampton, Eastleigh, Romsey and the New Forest.
“Overnight our teams have fixed the problem at the Testwood Water Supply Works and restarted the site. We’re now filling up the reservoir again with drinking water, ready to restore supply.
“This is a gradual process which must be done carefully and safely, but customers will start to be reconnected later today.
“We are opening bottled water stations today across the region and we will update on their locations and opening times from 8am. This is to make sure they have supplies and are ready to help you.
“We completed the first round of our bottled water deliveries to care homes and customers on our Priority Services Register overnight. We are planning to restart our second round of deliveries later today. If you need to be added to our Priority Service Register, please call 0330 303 0368.
“We are so sorry for the disruption this has caused you.”
Tim McMahon, managing director for water at Southern Water, said: “We’re very sorry for the disruption caused to customers who’ve lost supply.
“Overnight our teams have fixed the problem at the Testwood water works and restarted the site.
“We’re now filling up the reservoir again with drinking water, ready to restore supply.
“This is a gradual process which must be done carefully and safely, but households will start to be reconnected later today.”
Jill Woolger, 66, from Dibden Purlieu near the New Forest, has been without water since Wednesday morning and said she only had around a litre of bottled water left to last her for the evening.
The retired nurse, who lives with an autoimmune condition, is registered on the firm’s priority list and was told she could expect bottled water to be delivered to her home by 7pm, but claims she did not receive any.
We've approved substantial improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector
— Ofwat (@Ofwat) December 19, 2024
Ofwat’s David Black: "Customers will rightly expect companies to show they can deliver significant change over time to justify the increase in bills" pic.twitter.com/PxalE17uEt
She told the PA news agency: “I think what I’m so fed up about is that I’m on the priority service, but I haven’t had any water.”
Ms Woolger lives with ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammatory bowel disease that can cause ulcers, and psoriatic arthritis, and said her autoimmune conditions can make her “more prone to infections”.
She added that having water to keep her house clean is vital to avoid impacting her bowel movements.
She claimed water issues in her area seemed to be a recurrent problem after being hit with outages three times in two years, and criticised Southern Water for not offering better support to customers on the priority list.
A Defra spokesman said: “The water minister Emma Hardy has met with the chief executive of Southern Water to make sure the company is taking urgent steps to support residents and resolve the issue as soon as possible.
“Incidents like this are why we are forcing water companies to double the compensation provided to customers for supply issues.
“We are also carrying out a full review of the sector to shape further legislation that will transform how our water system works, increasing investment to upgrade crumbling infrastructure and strengthening regulation to better hold companies to account.”
