Hundreds still without water after burst pipes

Hundreds of households in east London and Essex are still without water after a series of bursts in South Woodford last weekend.

The burst pipes affected about 10,000 homes, and Thames Water had said supplies should be restored by Friday.

But Redbridge councillor Jo Blackman, cabinet member for environment and neighbourhoods, told BBC Radio London that 600 homes were still without water and that Thames Water's communication had been "less than ideal".

Thames Water apologised for the issues and said the "vast majority of customers in the area [were] now back in supply following successful repairs".

A spokesperson for the company said there were still some areas without water because of air trapped in the pipes, and that its teams were working to clear this air.

"The network will take some time to fully recover, as owing to the size of the area it will take time for the pressure to fully recover," the spokesperson added.

Blackman said Thames Water had not opened as many distribution sites for bottled water "as we had hoped", adding that there was "really serious congestion" at those sites which had been opened.

The Labour councillor added that not having water in "this heatwave [was] really hard" and that the council had opened up its leisure centres to the public to use the showers.

Thames Water said it had been providing regular updates on its website, including details of repair progress, restoration of supplies and the opening of bottled water stations, and that people on the Priority Services Register had received bottled water deliveries "where needed".

The spokesperson said: "We are doing everything we can to reduce the risk of similar incidents in the future.

"Once this incident is fully resolved, we will review the cause and use the lessons learned to strengthen the resilience of the local network."

On its website, Thames Water urged people who live in blocks of flats to contact their managing agent to "come out and reset your internal pumps if you're still experiencing issues with your water supply".

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