Thousands of Hailsham homes still without water

Hailsham is still without water this morning (Monday) despite engineers working through the night to fix a burst water main.
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And it is still not known if schools in the area will be open as there is no drinking water or water to flush toilets.

The 30 inch diameter cast iron water main burst yesterday morning on the Diplocks Roundabout off the A22 causing major flooding along the busy stretch of road and it had to be closed for several hours.

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Supplies of bottled water were being given out at special collection points as the water problem hit parts of Eastbourne, Willingdon, Polegate, Pevensey and Sovereign Harbour.

In the latest update this morning South East Water said it had to bring in specialist pumps to remove the large amount of water in the area following the burst before the repair could begin.

Simon Robertson, Incident Manager at South East Water, said, “This has been a major incident for the company and our priority remains getting water back to our customers as soon as possible.

“When the pipe burst it caused a great deal of flooding – up to waist deep in certain places – and we have had to pump this water away before we’ve been able to control the water flow in our network and reach the broken pipe.

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“Where possible we were able to re-route water around our network of underground pipes restoring supplies to areas of Eastbourne, Polegate and Sovereign Harbour yesterday evening.

“Unfortunately approximately 3,000 properties in Hailsham remain without water this morning but our crews are working extremely hard to repair the pipe as quickly and safely as possible.

“Once the repair to the pipe has been completed it will take some time for water to fill our extensive network of underground pipes in the Hailsham area but we are hopeful supplies to all customers will be restored later this afternoon.”

Overnight the company has been restocking bottled water supplies which customers can collect from Hailsham Leisure Centre, Vicarage Lane, BN27 4HB. These supplies will continue to be restocked throughout today.

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“It is very difficult to estimate when these repairs will be complete but we hope that water will have returned to Hailsham by mid-afternoon.

“I would once again like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience and thank them for their patience as we work hard to complete repairs for all customers.”

The A22 at Diplocks roundabout will be opened this morning, however one lane will remain closed while South East Water works to repair the section of damaged pipe.

More information on the location of alternative water supplies is available at southeastwater.co.uk