Tens of thousand of homes could be without water until the weekend, says Southern Water

Almost 60,000 homes across Hampshire are without water because of a “technical issue” at a Southern Water supply works, the company has said.

Homes in Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Totton, and parts of the New Forest have been affected by problems at the Testwood water supply works preventing water from leaving the site.

Southern Water apologised and said it was working hard to restore supplies, but warned the issue might continue until the weekend.

Long queues have been reported at bottle stations which have been set up at the Places Leisure Centre in Eastleigh, Sainsbury’s superstore in Southampton and Asda superstore in Totton.

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Southern Water said they are continuing to deliver water supplies to customers registered on their priority list and estimate that around 58,000 homes have been affected.

It said they have supplied dedicated tankers to Southampton General Hospital and Princess Anne Hospital. Several schools in the area say they are unlikely to open today.

In a statement on its website, Southampton General said: “We are working with Southern Water on contingency arrangements to ensure our hospitals continue to maintain water supplies.”

It added: “We ask patients to continue to attend appointments as planned but to allow extra time for their journey and in accessing parking facilities, due to the access requirements being put in place to enable delivery of those supplies.”

Southern Water has said it hopes supply will be restored throughout Thursday, but said the issue may not be fully resolved until the weekend.

“We are working towards all customers being back in supply by the weekend,” it said.

The outage comes as consumers in England and Wales prepare to hear today how much water bills will rise.

Southern Water wants the regulator Ofwat to allow it to increase bills by a whopping 84%, while struggling Thames Water has asked for a 53% rise.

Ofwat is expected to announce that charges will increase by more than 20% by 2030, which means an average rise of £20 a year per household and the average bill rising from £448 a year to £542.

Ofwat’s draft decisions released in July allowed water companies to increase bills by an average of 21%, before inflation is added, over the next five years to help fund £88 billion of investment in improving services and the environment.

The proposed bill rises would begin to take effect from April next year.