Areas of Watford still without water as supplies start to return in Bishop's Stortford

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

Parts of Hertfordshire are still without a household water supply after a rapid change in temperatures caused a significant number of burst pipes.

About 8,000 Affinity Water customers, mostly in Hertfordshire and Essex, have had their supplies interrupted since Monday.

The company said it had restored water to most customers but parts of the Watford area are still without a supply on Thursday.

It has apologised for the disruption.

Affinity said it was "still working hard to stabilise the supply network" after affected customers have had little or no water since the start of the week.

It said parts of the Watford area including the west of the town plus Oxhey and Bushey, and Pinner and Harrow in north London, are still either without water or have low pressure.

"We are working hard to replenish the water in local storage reservoirs, adjusting our network to bring in water from other areas and using tankers to top-up the reservoir," a statement said.

"We are very sorry for the disruption caused this week and would like to thank everyone in the area for their patience whilst we work to restore supplies to normal."

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It added that all customers in Bishop's Stortford should now have a water supply.

"We are building capacity back up in the network, which should improve pressures throughout the day," the company said.

"Some customers may experience low pressure during peak demand for water but this should improve outside these times."

It also said it had restored water to the majority of customers in Harlow and Ongar in Essex. The company has been supplying bottled water to affected areas.

It previously said the 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.

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