For a third day, thousands of homes in the UK are without water following widespread burst pipes. A sudden rise in temperature following the cold weather caused the frozen pipes to burst.
Many thousands of homes and businesses are without water in London, Kent, Sussex and Wales following the incident, and companies are reaching out to provide bottled water while the affected locations are put back on line.
1,500 remain without water in Wales, while nearly 5,000 homes in London are cut off from supply. The areas of Hastings and East Sussex also contain roughly 3,000 homes each with either no supply or low water pressure.
The scramble to secure bottled water has led to significant traffic throughout the affected areas, with reports of gridlocked roads in the Northfield areas of Birmingham. Officials are citing a lack of preparedness on the part of water companies to be reason for the widespread shortage.
“Water companies have been warned time and again that they need to be better at planning ahead to deal with these sorts of situations,” said Rachel Fletcher, chief executive of Ofwat, the government’s water industry regulator.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also offered his criticism for the water companies as the shortages forced the closure of schools on March 5, 2018 and have left thousands without water.