Bishop's Stortford families enter third day with little or no water

Phoebe Taplin said her household of seven in Bishop's Stortford was still without water

Some families have entered their third day with little or no water after a rapid change in temperatures caused a significant number of burst pipes.

Affinity Water said 8,000 customers, mostly in Hertfordshire and Essex, had their supplies interrupted.

It said the majority of its customers had had their supply restored but some were still without or had low pressure.

Phoebe Taplin said her household of seven in Bishop's Stortford had not had water since Monday.

"We are still stuck with literally nothing coming out of the taps," said the travel writer.

The 53-year-old said she, her husband Luke Harding, their two sons and three of their friends had been staying at their home when the outage happened.

Affinity Water said it had set up bottled water collection points for residents, but Ms Taplin said they were unable to get to those sites as they did not have a car.

Her family has set up camp in a local pub, which has had its water supply restored, so they can work remotely and carry out their studies.

"There are worse things that can happen but you don't realise how much you need water for everything until you don't have it," said Ms Taplin.

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Meanwhile, Megan Jarrett, also from the Hertfordshire town, said her water supply was "intermittent and the pressure is very low".

She said with four of them in the house, including her two children, aged one and 10, the last couple of days had been a "nightmare".

Affinity Water has set up bottled water collection points for those affected

Affinity Water said the water supply issues were "all down to the weather conditions" over the last few days.

Last week, temperatures plummeted to below freezing, but on Saturday they rose by 20C (36F) in some areas.

Kevin Barton, from the company, said this "rapid thaw" caused issues for water companies.

"Those temperature swings cause ground movement and pipes to expand and contract and that led to significantly more bursts on our network," he said.

He said there had been 12 times the normal amount of bursts for this time of year.

Affinity Water said it was "very sorry" for the disruption caused over the last few days and thanked customers for their patience.

Meanwhile, Anglian Water said it also experienced issues.

It said its teams continued to "work round the clock to repair the increased number of bursts and leaks in our network following the rapid thaw over the last few days".

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