South East Water: Supply returns after three-day outage

South East Water said airlocks in the system were causing delays in restoring supplies

Water supply has returned to properties in East Sussex after a three-day outage.

South East Water said supplies had been affected in the Brightling and Robertsbridge areas of Rother.

The issue is thought to have been caused by a burst pipe in Perryman's Lane in Burwash, with disruption beginning on Wednesday morning.

On Saturday, the firm said supplies had returned to normal, and apologised to affected customers.

"We're incredibly sorry to all customers who had no water or low pressure this week following a burst main in the Sussex area," incident manager Steve Benton said.

"Our teams worked round the clock to restore tap water supplies to the Brightling, Three Cups Corner, Punnett's Town and Churches Green areas of Sussex.

"We know this has been a very frustrating time for our customers and apologise for the inconvenience it has caused."

South East Water has delivered bottled water to customers affected by the supply issues

On Friday evening, about 23 households were still without supply, South East Water said.

Farmer Christine French previously said it had been difficult to get enough water for her cattle.

"We've got 36 youngsters which are running out of water rapidly. They need to be fed at least twice a day," she said.

South East Water, which is currently under investigation by Ofwat, revealed this week that it has paid out £2.3m in dividends to investors.

Ofwat is investigating South East Water over its service to customers and record in maintaining a water supply.

The firm said the £2.3m was less than the £4.5m paid a year earlier and a figure which was lower than what Ofwat believed was reasonable.

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