Water finally restored to thousands of homes across Sefton

Engineers worked throughout the night to bring water back to residents' taps Credit: United Utilities

Water has finally been restored to thousands of homes after a water main burst in Sefton.

Around 32,000 homes in six postcodes were left without running water, or with low pressure, when a large section of the pipe burst submerging the road in Litherland.

Sefton Council declared a "major incident", on Sunday 24 July, and said it was liaising with United Utilities to control the burst and to provide water to residents.

Local supermarkets set up bottled water stations for residents as they waited for supplies to return.

Residents queued for water bottles as United Utilities worked throughout the night to get water flowing. Credit: ITV News

Of the houses initially affected 18,000 were reconnected within a day, but others were left without water, or low pressure.

United Utilities said the damage was so severe, the 'extremely complex repair' took longer than expected, leaving many residents waterless for almost two days.

It added: "Restoring supplies has been our top priority and our teams have worked round the clock to complete the repair.

"Where possible we have had water tankers pumping additional supplies into the network to help with attempts to get taps flowing again.

Water has been restored to many homes. Credit: ITV News

"There could be a delay in your water pressure returning to what you are used to, as we have to turn the water on gradually after a repair to avoid further problems.

"Sometimes after a repair discolouration to supplies may occur, this is due to the repair work on the pipe and should clear after a short time.

"A quick reminder for customers impacted, we will proactively contact and automatically pay any customer entitled to compensation so customers don’t need to get in touch with us directly about this."


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