Southern Water has issued an update explaining the reasons for the water outage in south Hampshire which saw customers in Waterside, New Forest, and in Ventnor, Godshill, Whitwell and Niton, on the Isle of Wight, experience no water or a limited supply last week.
The water company said the interruption was caused by unprecedented issues with the quality of water it took from the River Test, to treat at its Testwood Water Supply Works.
The Testwood site, located just outside Totton, draws its water from the nearby chalk stream – the River Test.
Southern Water said that unfortunately, weeks of rain, including Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán, caused river levels to rise enormously, after floodwater ran into it from throughout the local area. This caused a build-up of mud, silt, and debris within the watercourse.
The utility said that Testwood is designed to clean and treat water with certain amounts of debris in, but not to the scale experienced last week, commenting:
“We operate to the very highest legal and regulatory water quality standards, so our monitors did what they are supposed to do and triggered a shutdown of the site on Thursday 2nd November 2023.
“Re-filling our water network has to be done slowly to prevent further issues like bursts, airlocks and excessive discoloured water from occurring. That’s why some customers were back in supply quicker than others. By Sunday 5th November 2023, all customer taps were running once more in homes and businesses.”
Southern Water said it is aware of the emotional and practical effects of having no water, adding:
“If you were without water for more than 12 hours, you are entitled to a rebate on your water bill under our Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS). Household and business customers entitled to this will receive a letter or email about this before 30th November.”
Southern Water has also released a video to help explain the causes of the recent loss of supply issues – click here to watch online
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