Polegate homes left without water after mains bursts

South East Water engineers were sent to the scene at the junction of Station Road and Porters Way that day, and worked into the evening to fix it.

The company handed out bottled water to residents who had been affected.

However, the mains has not been completely repaired and South East Water says it may have to close it again to finish the job this evening (February 27).

South East Water’s distribution manager Andrew Davin said, “We’re sorry to our customers who were without water for a period yesterday after a burst on our main in Porters Way, Polegate. We believe 66 customers were without water as a result of the emergency.

“We were alerted to the problem at 2.30pm yesterday (Tuesday) and were on site just over an hour later to carry out the repair.

“However, the repair was complicated because there were other utility pipes close by and tree roots which needed to be protected.

“We returned the water supply to our customers as quickly as we could overnight and have resumed the repair today (Wednesday).

“In order to complete the work, we will again have to shut off the main at some point, but we will keep this interruption to the absolute minimum.

“Unfortunately leaks and bursts do happen on our high pressure, extensive underground network which carries 517 million litres of water every day through 9,000 miles of mains and more than six million joints. Sometimes those pipes and joints fail, but we work around the clock to find and fix leaks and bursts.”

For more information contact South East Water by calling 0333 000 0002 or visit its website, using the incident number 36112.