Southern Water has revealed that it is struggling to fill reservoirs in northern parts of the Isle of Wight tonight (Thursday) due to the temporary shut down of its Testwood Water Supply Works in Southampton. Yet another water emergency is emerging just days after 31,000 properties across the Island almost lost fresh water supply. Thankfully, the situation was quickly improved and no homes or businesses lost water in the end. However, Storm Ciaran’s arrival today is said to have led to an unprecedented impact on the water quality and levels of the River Test, close to Southern Water’s Testwood site on the mainland. This has made it hard to abstract water and treat it to become drinking water. The decision has been made to temporarily shutdown Testwood WSW and, as a result, the utility company is struggling to fill reservoirs in southern Hampshire and in northern parts of the Isle of Wight. It is known that a similar emergency quietly arose during the early hours of Monday morning, which also threatened the fresh water supply to the Island. Again, things got close but the situation was resolved at the 11th hour without Islanders being any the wiser. Those living in the SO40, SO45 and SO16 areas of Southampton have been told they are likely to lose water supply tonight, but it is unclear at this stage if the same will occur for Islanders. A spokesperson for Southern Water has said:
“Our teams are working around the clock to get our Testwood site back working as soon as possible, as stormwater levels fall and water quality improves. Other efforts include moving water around the network to where it is needed most to minimise disruption, delivering bottled water to customers on our priority services register as a precaution and working closely with key community partners to ensure critical infrastructure is supported”.
