'We haven't had a steady water supply for months'

Charlene says she and her three children have not had a steady water supply for almost three months

A woman from south-east London says she and her three children have not had a steady supply of water in their flat for almost three months.

Charlene, who does not want her last name to be published, said access to water in her home in Crystal Palace was sporadic and she sometimes had no supply for up to seven hours.

She told BBC London that although housing association Hyde had sent a plumber to fix the problem it had not been resolved, and four of the six flats in her building remained affected.

Hyde said it was investigating and would ensure it was supplying bottled water to the building.

Charlene said: "Trying to run a household with three children without running water is a joke"

Charlene said she had lived in the two-bedroom flat, run by Hyde Group, for 12 years with her three children.

She said: "It started off every few days, but now every day there are some periods where I don’t have running water.

"Trying to run a household with three children without running water is a joke."

She added: "We never know when we will have water, so you never know when you can have a shower.

"I’ve had to wash my clothes at other people’s homes, which is a complete inconvenience, it’s ridiculous."

She says Hyde has sent her a box of chocolates in response to her complaints

Charlene said she and her neighbours have repeatedly complained but been "passed from pillar to post", and said after she made a formal complaint to Hyde it told her Thames Water was responsible for the problem.

She said she contacted Thames Water but was told if the issue had been related to supply, two other flats that were currently unaffected would have had a problem as well.

She said Hyde had sent her a box of chocolates, and had previously offered her a payment of £150 but she refused this and, since then, the association had not responded to her last two emails.

"It’s not an isolated issue and it’s now beginning to affect my mental health," she said.

"It’s impacting my everyday life and it’s destroying it."

'We are investigating'

A spokesperson for Hyde said: “We’re sorry that Charlene and her neighbours are experiencing issues with the water in their building.

"We are investigating and we’re trying to get to the bottom of why the water is running dry so quickly.

"In the meantime, we’ll make sure that we are supplying bottled water to the building.”

A spokesperson for Thames Water said an engineer had visited the property on Tuesday and reported that there were no problems with the external water supply to the flats.

The engineer also noted that there may be potential internal pump and tank issues.