Surrey: Thousands still without water as major incident declared

Bottled water stations have been handing out emergency supplies to residents

Thousands of people are still without water in Surrey after a major incident was declared following a technical issue at a water treatment works.

Thames Water has apologised and said Shalford treatment works in Guildford had faced issues after Storm Ciarán.

Waverley Borough Council leader Paul Follows told BBC Breakfast trying to get "basic information" from the water company had been a "challenge".

He said the issue was affecting "about 10 to 12,000 people" on Monday morning.

Mr Follows said: "I have certainly got questions for the county for not declaring a major incident much earlier, and I will certainly have questions for our MP about the state of water infrastructure in the local area because it is clearly failing."

The county's Local Resilience Forum declared a major incident on Sunday.

Guildford's A&E unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital is operating with low levels of water and closed toilet facilities.

People have been urged only to attend the emergency department if they cannot get urgent and emergency care they need elsewhere.

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation trust, which also runs services at Haslemere and Milford hospitals, said Thames Water was working to secure hospital water supplies including supplying water via tankers and currently there was sufficient access to water across most areas of its sites.

'Wealthy Surrey'

James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, said it was a disgrace, adding: "This is one of the wealthiest parts of the UK.

"To blame Storm Ciarán is unacceptable. We are witnessing the water industry's systemic lack of investment."

He claimed Thames Water leaked 600m litres of drinking water per day and had opened no new reservoirs in decades.

However, the company said it had plans to provide a secure supply for the next 50 years, including a new reservoir near Abingdon and a direct river abstraction project in West London.

The company is also planning a 5.5mile (9km) water transfer pipeline to connect part of the Guildford area to an alternative source of water, with work scheduled to start early next year.

David Bird of Thames Water said the company had made deliveries to vulnerable customers

David Bird, retail director at Thames Water, told BBC Breakfast the company started to see a loss of supply to some customers on Saturday evening.

He said the company had 28 tankers, 24 hours a day, bringing supplies to local hospitals and others, with vulnerable customers receiving water before the outage impacted them.

On Monday, the Shalford water treatment works was "back online" but underground reservoirs still needed to be refilled, the company said. It said it expected supplies to resume over the next 24-hours.

Tim Oliver, Surrey County Council leader, said all agencies would continue to work with Thames Water to support residents, "particularly those most vulnerable".

Among customers affected was Alice Poole from Farncombe, who said her water went off on Sunday morning.

She said they managed to find bottled water but had two small boys at home who had been out playing football getting "grubby" and she had another small child who had been sick overnight and they needed to wash sheets.

She said the family had resorted to using baby wipes and anti-bacterial products, adding: "We're just boiling water and washing what we can."

Jeanette, who spoke to BBC Radio Surrey at the bottled water station at Crown Court car park said: "I've got disabled people down my road. I was going to take some back for them but I can't because I could only have two packs.

"I know a lot of people were queuing for hours yesterday. I went to three shops yesterday to buy water - all out, none of the stores have got them."

At the scene

By Clare Cowan, BBC Radio Surrey

There's a steady flow of cars heading into Godalming's Crown Court Car Park which has been handing out bottled water since just gone 07:30 GMT.

More than 25 pallets filled with hundreds of bottles of water await collection from residents who've been without water at home for more than 24 hours.

People I've been speaking to this morning are relieved to get supplies, but frustrated at Thames Water.

Ilhan Cosgun, 45, from Godalming, said he and his two boys hadn't showered for a couple of days so were a bit grumpy. He said Thames Water needed to improve communication and get a move on and fix it.

On Monday, Godalming College closed for the day and Godalming Junior School also closed but said some pupils would be invited in at specific times.

Rodborough School in Milford closed and said learning would move online.

Surrey County Council has told parents to refer to individual school websites for updates.

Mr Bird said Thames Water had been speaking to the Department for Education about "the small number of schools" affected and said he hoped this had been "minimised through all the deliveries we have been making".

Pallets of water were waiting for collection on Monday morning

Thames Water said supplies would "only gradually return" on Monday and apologised to those affected in postcode areas GU1, GU2, GU3, GU5, GU6, GU7 and GU8.

One of the affected areas, Milford, was also without power earlier. Scottish and Southern Electricity Network (SSEN) said 276 customers were cut off but supplies were later restored.

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