Water pours from pipe for four days

Stroud Green Drive resident Roger Hackett said the water had been pouring out since last Friday night (February 20).

He calculated that about a gallon a minute was just running away.

"It will be four days if the damage isn't repaired by tonight," he said on Tuesday morning.

"That will be 6,000 gallons of water by my reckoning. Even if it's only half that, it's still a lot of water.

"At least two people reported the problem to Portsmouth Water on Saturday. Someone came to have a look at the situation that day to see what was going on. But no one has done anything about it since."

Mr Hackett said the force of the escaping water was turning it into several jets 2-3ins high as it poured out of the ground.

"There is so much water you can hear it running away like a stream," he explained.

"It is going down the nearest drain but there is so much of it that some of the water is going on to form a small puddle in Chalcraft Lane."

The water began to come out of a stopcock hole near a home in Stroud Green Drive. But the leak had worsened so much since that it was now spurting out of the kerbstones.

A Portsmouth Water spokeswoman said a repair crew was sent to the scene on yesterday (Tuesday, February 24) afternoon. "We have had a few emergencies recently and that is why we were not able to get there earlier," she stated.