Crawley residents have described struggling without running water for hours, after a burst main disrupted supplies to around 9,000 properties.

The outage affected parts of Southgate, Tilgate, Furnace Green, Holmcroft and the town centre, on Sunday (September 27).

Roads were flooded, while County Mall and other businesses closed. Although Southern Water repaired the pipe on Sunday evening, residents’ accounts show that supplies returned at different times across the town.

Sacha Bonning-Parker, who lives in Queen Square, said: “I was one the them that had no water at all, I struggled to have a drink today and a shower. I do have water now but it’s taken 14 hours.”

Roads around Crawley have reopened, after a burst water main caused widespread flooding and left thousands of properties without water. Credit: Eddie Mitchell

placeholder image — Roads around Crawley have reopened, after a burst water main caused widespread flooding and left thousands of properties without water. Credit: Eddie Mitchell

Another resident, named Tue Larsen, said: “We have been without running water the entire day.”

By 2.15pm, Diane Bartlett reported that there was still no water on Ashdown Drive. Heather Murphy said at 4.30pm that there was ‘none in Tilgate’, while Lisa Wright said at 4.50pm: “We still don’t have water.”

Jane Ashton reported a different experience nearby, saying: “My water returned at 5pm in Northgate Crawley.”

The shortage also sent some residents looking for bottled water. At noon, Ian Butler said: “Unfortunately shops are selling out of bottle water. The County Mall is closed because of the situation.”

Southern Water later opened a bottled water station at The Hawth Theatre and delivered water to customers on its Priority Services Register.

Jan Whiley said at 12.50pm: “We are back up and running plus they have just delivered 12 bottles of water as priority customer.”

Neil Mitchell praised the repair crews but criticised the wider response.

He said: “Well done to those engineers who have worked hard and tirelessly to fix the supply it must have been hard with so much water being lost and affecting so many homes and business.”

Mr Mitchell questioned investment in water infrastructure and called for an explanation of why the main burst. Southern Water has confirmed the burst and repair but has not yet given a cause.

The company said on Sunday evening that all customers should see their water returning, although some could experience intermittent supply or low pressure while the network returned to normal. Roads closed by the flooding had reopened by Monday morning.