Care home buys bottled water after supply cut off

Care home staff dashed to a supermarket and bought two trolleys full of bottled water, after their supply was cut off during soaring temperatures.

Anglian Water organised bottled water deliveries after a burst pipe on Sunday "left people in the Dereham area of Norfolk with low water pressure or no water at all".

However, Kerrie Wollen, Dorrington House activities manager, said supplies did not arrive "until much later in the day".

Anglian Water said it was "very sorry" that some of its customers experienced disruptions, adding that the supply had since been restored.

Speaking to BBC Look East, Wollen said she learned about the water supply issue when she arrived at work at 10:00 BST on Sunday.

"So we went down to Tesco, got two trolleys worth of bottles of water, as much as we can possibly get, paper plates - because of the washing up, we can't use the normal plates that we usually use - [and] we had to get [wet] wipes, so that everyone could be clean," she said.

"We made sure that we're doing half-hour checks on everybody to make sure they had a drink, they were hydrated, that everyone's safe."

The home specialises in looking after up to 45 older people, some with dementia.

She felt the home "should have been a priority" for bottled water deliveries.

Temperatures rose throughout the bank holiday weekend in Norfolk, rising to more than 30C (86F).

Louise Daglish, the home's resident manager, said: "When I got that message [that the water was back on] at 08:00 this morning, the relief on my face was certainly seen."

She praised the way her staff pulled together to "put our residents first".

In a statement, Anglian Water said: "We are sorry some customers in Dereham and the surrounding areas experienced low water pressure or no water at all over the last couple of days. All customers and businesses are now back on water.

"We repaired a burst water main in the area yesterday, and we also repaired another burst on the same pipe this morning.

"Our engineers were on site throughout the situation, and we distributed bottled water in the area, prioritising our most vulnerable customers.

"We know that going without water in such hot weather is really difficult for both customers and local businesses, and we'd like to thank the community in Dereham for bearing with us while we got things back to normal."

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