Rother villages warned about ‘cloudy water’ after supplies restored

Residents in Robertsbridge, Etchingham and Wadhurst had been forced to collect bottled water after two burst pipes on Monday (July 25) left them without drinking water.

South East Water has announced that the water supplies have been restored today (July 27). It advised that customers in the area may ‘see their water is cludy or discloured’, but said that this was normal after an interruption to supply.

Steve Benton, incident manager, said: “Customers in Flimwell, Robertsbridge and surrounding areas have had their tap water supplies restored overnight, however there may be some areas experiencing low pressure while our network continues to refill.

“Some customers in the area may see their water is cloudy or discoloured – this is normal after an interruption to supply and can be cleared by slowly running the cold kitchen tap.

“Within Mountfield there are airlocks in the pipework affecting supplies to very localised parts of the village which are preventing water reaching all customers. Our specialist technicians are currently releasing this air and water supplies should have been fully restored by lunchtime.

“We are very sorry for the disruption to taps water supplies following the series of bursts on our network, as well as the length of time to get everyone’s taps flowing again.

“During this period of hot weather, between 11 July and 25 July, we have seen a 50 per cent increase in burst water mains across our supply area. We are reacting and repairing these as quickly as we can.”

The MP for Battle and Bexhill, Huw Merriman, criticised South East Water's response to the incident.

He said: “It really is time for some answers from South East Water as to why they think their response is adequate. It appears from this incident, that they have not learnt any lessons if only one bottled water station has been set up in a village miles from many of those impacted.

"“It is time for utility companies to come up with a better plan to support rural communities impacted by serious issues.”