Southern Water has informed some households on Hunnyhill in Newport that they will be without water for another 2 days, with a ‘do not use’ notice issued.
As previously reported by Island Echo, engineers have been working to fix a 9-inch main that burst during the early hours of Sunday morning. They have also been working to fix a 4-inch main that was found to be damaged next to it.
Although repairs have now been completed, Southern Water is having to undertake enhanced sampling of the main and flush the supply, which means that a do not use notice has been issued to around 6 affected households in the area. It’s unclear at this stage what exactly has led to this action being taken.
The warning is that the water supply may be contaminated. Safe, bottled water is to be delivered to the 6 properties affected instead, it has been confirmed.
However, concerned locals have expressed their anger at the situation stating that bottled water doesn’t really help with having a shower or bath, cleaning clothes or flushing the loo.
By the time that supply is restored on Wednesday, some will have been without running water for more than 3 days.
UPDATE @ 12:01 – A spokesperson for Southern Water has said:
“It is standard practice after a large main has broken for us to flush it out and then take samples. Normally this won’t directly affect customers but a small number of houses on Hunnyhill are fed directly off the pipe and we can’t take any risks with their health. They will be entitled to compensation and our customer team is staying in close contact with all those affected.”
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Can I use the water to shower
Big profits, little maintenance, hosepipe ban coming soon…
And why can’t you flush the loo? Or do you drink water out of it?
No change for some, the odour coming off the Newport hoi polloi is pungent to say the least.