Welsh Water issues update as Conwy burst pipe affects thousands

Summary

Water will be restored 'within 48 hours' as the pipe which burst at a treatment plant in Conwy county is fixed
Schools have been forced to close for a second day
As many as 40,000 homes are thought to be without water
There are long queues at collection points for bottled water

Live Reporting

Edited by John Arkless

Elderly people 'confused' due to lack of social mediapublished at 12:35 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January
Megan Davies
BBC News
Clwb yr Efail, a community club for the elderly and vulnerable in Conwy, has been forced to shut its doors today.
Terence James, the club’s chairperson, says the priority is now to support those who normally come to them for a hot meal, particularly those on a low-income.
“Many of our people are in their 80s, some in their 90s. The club is a haven during the day,” he says.
The club’s team have spent the morning making welfare calls to the dozens of club members, many of them who live alone.
James added many people “are confused” by the situation as they do not have access to social media and are therefore not being updated.
Engineers working to fix pipepublished at 12:20 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January
We've just received these drone pictures of engineers working to fix the water pipe, which burst on Wednesday night.
Image source, Paul Hyde Cymru Drones
Image source, Paul Hyde Cymru Drones
Large queues for water at Zip Worldpublished at 12:08 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January
Carwyn Jones
Reporting from Zip World Conwy
The water bottle stations have started to open to the public, and the one in Zip World Conwy had about 10 Welsh Water staff conducting a swift operation – opening people’s car doors and putting in packs of large water bottles before they set off.
Large pallets of drinkable water bottles were seen on site, as well as tanks of emergency drinking water.
Long queues of cars were also waiting to enter the site, with a queue snaking around half a mile down the road towards Tal-y-bont as I left - and getting busier.
This shows the scale of how many people have been affected.
I heard one member of the public thanking staff for their help in setting up the emergency water stations, and speaking with members of staff, one had come from across the English border about 50 miles away to work there.
What has Welsh Water said?published at 12:01 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January
Oliver Slow
BBC News
Welsh Water, external issued an update at 11:20 GMT on Friday, saying it had opened two water bottle stations, at Park Eirias and Zip World Conwy, with a third planned, while it also aims to deliver bottled water in some “key community locations”.
The company says it recognises “the inconvenience being experienced by customers”, adding eligible households will be paid £30 in compensation for every 12 hours their supplies have been affected.
Business customers will be paid £75 for every 12 hours.
"We appreciate that this ongoing disruption is causing real frustration for our customers and we are truly sorry,” Welsh Water adds.
Burst water pipe causing disruption in north Walespublished at 11:51 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January
Image source, Welsh Water
Image caption,
Welsh Water has announced a compensation scheme for those impacted
Hello and welcome to our live coverage as a burst water pipe continues to cause widespread disruption in north Wales.
As many as 40,000 homes are thought to be without water, while schools and businesses have also been closed for the past two days.
The incident occurred at Bryn Cowlyd Water Treatment Works in Dolgarrog, Conwy on Wednesday night.
Water supply was expected to be restored on Thursday, but on Friday morning Welsh Water said it would take a further 48 hours, even once the main is repaired.