Schools closed and thousands left without water due to fault at Southern Water treatment works

People queue for water at Places Leisure Eastleigh yesterday evening. Credit: ITV Meridian

Thousands of homes in South Hampshire are without water for a second day following a fault at a Southern Water supply works.

Around 60,000 properties are affected in Southampton, the New Forest, Eastleigh and the Test Valley.

Southern Water says supplies were shut off yesterday morning following a problem at its Testwood Water Supply works, preventing water from leaving the site.

The company says it has diagnosed the cause of the issue and has a 'clear plan' to get supplies back to properties.

As of 7am tthe supplier said its teams have fixed the problem and restarted the Testwood site. The reservoir there will now need to be filled up, a process that has to be done 'carefully and safely'.

If all goes to plan, Southern Water says some customers will start to be reconnected later on today.

A fault at Testwood Water Supply Works has caused the outage. Credit: PA

The loss of supply has forced several schools to close today (Thursday 19 December) in both Southampton and the surrounding boroughs.

Five schools in Southampton and four in the New Forest and Test Valley have announced they cannot open due to the lack of water.

They are:

  • The Compass School

  • The Cedar School

  • Fairisle Infant and Nursey School

  • Sinclair Primary and Nursery

  • Fairisle Junior School

  • Calmore Infant School

  • Calmore Junior School

  • Hounsdown School

  • Halterworth Primary School

Updates on further closures are being provided on both the Hampshire County Council and Southampton City Council websites.

Bottled water arrives in lorries at Places Leisure Eastleigh Credit: ITV Meridian

Bottled water stations will reopen at 8am for affected homes and businesses. Southern Water says there will be three locations open, one in Eastleigh, Marchwood and Totton.

They are:

  • Places Leisure Centre, Passfield Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9NL

  • Asda, Maynard Road, Totton, SO40 3ZA

  • Southampton FC Training Ground, Staplewood Football Development Centre, Marchwood, SO40 4WR

Southern Water says its teams are also continuing to deliver bottled water to customers on its priority services register and says people should contact them if they haven't received any.

The company is also using 23 tankers to supply critical infrastructure, including Southampton General Hospital, where it has dedicated 7 tankers, so the site can continue to treat patients.

A Southern Water tanker in Southampton Credit: Southern Water

Southern has apologised for the “ongoing disruption” and said on its website it hopes supply will be restored throughout Thursday, but said the issue may not be fully resolved until the weekend.

“The fix at Testwood supply works is ongoing and we hope to complete the initial phase by tomorrow morning,” the firm said.

“We then need to re-charge our water network and restore supply to homes that were affected. If these works proceed to our current plan, customers should start to see supplies restored during tomorrow, but some areas may take longer.

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

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