Eastbourne and Polegate water outage: taps should be ‘flowing as normal’ as South East Water says issue is resolved

South East Water apologised to residents with no water or low pressure in the afternoon.

The outage appeared to be impacting homes in Polegate, Wannock, Lower Willingdon, Langney, and Sovereign Harbour, according to the company’s AquAlerter map.

A South East Water spokesperson said at 2.55pm: “We're really sorry to those of you who have no water or low water pressure. We are looking into the cause as a priority.

“Please be assured that we are working as quickly as possible to get your supply back up and running as soon as we can.”

An update at 4.13pm said the issue had been resolved.It said: “Good news! Our team on site has now completed investigations on our network and you should now see your taps flowing as normal.

“If your water looks brown in colour, please don't worry as it is not harmful. This happens when small particles of iron within the mains are disturbed. Simply run from your cold kitchen tap until the water is clear. Your water may also appear cloudy, or white. If you fill a glass of water and it clears from the bottom upwards then this means your water is just a little more aerated than usual.

“Once again, we're really sorry about the disruption. If you would like further updates via SMS text message please use the form on this page and automatic updates will be sent to you.”

South East Water’s head of water supply for Sussex, Rob Hall, said: “We’re sorry to customers in the Polegate area of Eastbourne who experienced no water or low pressure earlier today.

“With the prolonged hot weather we have been experiencing, demand for water has been extremely high. In order to protect water supplies across our supply region we have been making changes to the way water flows around the network.

“Unfortunately this caused a short outage for some customers which was restored as quickly as possible.

“Once again we’re very sorry for the disruption to your supplies.”