South East Water apologises to customers in East Grinstead on Monday as water supply problems affect 16,500 homes in area
South East Water has confirmed that water supplies are still being affected in East Grinstead on Monday, January 12, after Storm Goretti.
South East Water (SEW) apologised to customers in the area who are without mains water after the problems were first reported on Saturday morning.
An estimated 16,500 homes in East Grinstead have been affected.
The company announced at 11.08am on Saturday on aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk/interruption/139949: “Regrettably, customers in East Grinstead and the surrounding areas will begin to experience no water, intermittent supply or low pressure from this morning. Whilst we work to restore supplies, we do not expect this situation to improve until the end of the weekend.
“We are sorry to all customers who may be impacted by this. We are working hard to restore supplies and have set up two bottled water stations which opened at 10am. These are located at: Sainsbury’s, Brooklands Way, East Grinstead, RH19 1DD; Queensway Car Park, Queen's Road, East Grinstead, RH19 1BG.”
On Saturday evening SEW announced a location change to the East Grinstead bottled water stations.
A Facebook post at 10pm said: “Our bottled water stations will be located at: East Grinstead Sports Club, Saint Hill Rd, East Grinstead RH19 4JU; Queensway Car Park, Queen’s Road, East Grinstead, RH19 1BG.”
Both stations are set to close at 10pm and will remain open until customer supplies are returned to normal.
SEW’s message at aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk said: “Storm Goretti has affected our ability to treat the raw water at the normal rate at our main Sussex water treatment works. Coupled with the outbreak of burst water mains on our network due to the freeze/thaw conditions being experienced across Sussex, our drinking water storage levels are running low.”
An updated message on Sunday, January 11, said:“We are sorry that customers in East Grinstead and the surrounding areas have had no water, intermittent supply or low pressure from this morning. We are working hard to restore supplies but regrettably, we do not expect this situation to improve until the end of the weekend. We are sorry to all customers who may be impacted by this.”
There were also reports of a burst water main in East Grinstead during the morning of Saturday, January 10. AA Traffic News at www.theaa.com/route-planner/traffic-news said at 11.03am that a burst main was affecting the B2110.
The message on the live map said: “Partially blocked and slow traffic due to burst water main on B2110 Northbound from West Hill to Railway Approach. Congestion to Imberhorne Lane and Turners Hill Road.” The message disappeared from the live map on Saturday afternoon.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, East Grinstead and Uckfield MP Mims Davies said: “About 40,000 people in Sussex and Kent have been affected and the worst in East Grinstead and Wealden villages area. It’s expected to take another day or two to be fixed as the water has to be a certain quality before it can reach our taps. People need to be held to account for this and we will be looking at what exactly has happened here and so it doesn’t happen again.”
On Monday morning (January 12) a South East Water update said: “We’re are working hard to restore supplies but regrettably, this situation has not improved as much as we would have liked and we anticipate that the reservoir is unlikely to return to a level where your supplies will return until tomorrow (Tuesday 13th). We are sorry to all customers who may be impacted by this.
“The bottle stations will open at 9am at the following locations: Kings Centre – Moat Rd, East Grinstead RH19 3LN; East Grinstead Sports Club – Saint Hill Rd, East Grinstead RH19 4JU; East Court, College Lane, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 3LT. They will remain in place until all customer supplies are returned to normal.”