Worthing burst water main - Here is everything we know so far

The incident, which led to significant flooding, happened close to the entrance of Morrisons on Thursday afternoon (September 23). Southern Water staff were pictured at the scene while police were on hand to redirect traffic.

Some residents reported having no water and some businesses had to close temporarily, including Brooksteed Alehouse in South Farm Road, which announced the temporary closure on Facebook.

Sussex Police said officers were made aware of a burst water pipe causing flooding on Newland Road around 2.40pm.

They assisted with a road closure ‘before handing the matter over to the water company’.

Southern Water said, at 7pm, that the main had been isolated and customers in the area were experiencing low pressure or no water. It added that its priority was to restore supplies ‘as soon as we can’. 

“We’re sorry for the disruption caused by this emergency,” a spokesperson said. 

“We have a team on site making a repair and we have other teams working hard to restore supply as quickly as possible. We are bringing water tankers into the area to help make that happen faster.”

Staff also delivered bottled water to customers on the ‘Priority Services Register’.

At 11pm, Southern said a six-metre length of pipe was being replaced, adding: “When the fix is complete we will start recharging the our network.”

Just after 1am, Southern Water said teams were close to completing the repair and were currently bolting in a new section of nine-inch water main.

A spokesperson added: “There is good progress on our repairs to the major burst in Worthing tonight.

“Once the repair is finished we will carefully recharge the main and supplies will then gradually start to return.”

The water supply was restored to customers at around 2am this morning (Friday).

“People should be able to use their water as normal again today,” Southern Water said in a statement at 8.30am.

“We apologise to those customers without supply yesterday and thank them for their patience while we replaced a six metre length of pipe.

“We continue to work in the area to finalise the repairs and there is traffic management in the area which may affect local traffic in the Newlands Road area. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause.”

If you are still experiencing a problem with your water supply, you can contact Southern Water on 0330 303 0368.