East Sussex: Hundreds of properties affected by water outage

South East Water said "heavy rainfall and flooding" had resulted in technical problems at one of the water treatment works which supplies the area

Around 700 homes are experiencing water problems in East Sussex.

South East Water says people in Alfriston, Berwick, Wilmington, Laughton and surrounding areas are without water or have low pressure.

The company said: "Heavy rainfall and flooding have resulted in technical problems at one of our water treatment works which supplies the area."

It added that bottled water stations are open in Alfriston and at the Arlington reservoir.

One resident said the lorry delivering bottled water "had to drive through flood water to reach the water station"

Alfriston resident Mark Farrar told BBC Radio Sussex he had been to the bottled water station and was taking some water to vulnerable residents.

He said: "We are in unknown territory at the minute as we don't know how long this will last for or how long the bottled water will be at the station for.

"I only realised this when I went to brush my teeth this morning (Wednesday). The lorry that delivered the water had to drive straight through a road that was closed due to flooding."

Matthew Dean, incident manager at South East Water, said: "Due to the impact the flooding and rainfall has had on our water treatment works, we don't anticipate full supplies being restored until some time [on Thursday]."

Mike Pickard, also from South East Water, said: "The water we are trying to extract is being affected by additional flooding. Our teams are working around the clock to try and restore supplies."

Mandy has been delivering water to vulnerable people in Alfriston

Mandy Foss, who owns Alfriston Woodland Cabins, says she has been out on Wednesday morning delivering water to vulnerable residents in her community with her 10-year-old son.

Alfriston School says it is is closed today due to the water outage and may not be able to re-open on Thursday.

The owner of the local village shop in Alfriston said: "This is the last straw as we've been continuously flooded for the last few months and now this has happened.

"It is a frightening feeling and I have lived it for 18 years - it is a very scary feeling."

Alfriston emergency group chairman Steve Woodgate described the situation as "ironic"

Alfriston emergency group chairman Steve Woodgate has been handing out supplies with South East Water since 08:00 GMT.

He described the situation as "ironic", as the group's members were also clearing flood water from the area.

"The water outage is unusual but we've had to become resilient and self-reliant."

Some other members of the group have been handing out water to residents in nearby villages.

Mr Dean added: "Once again, we are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and our teams are working hard to restore supplies as soon as possible."

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