Water company criticised after burst water main takes six days to repair

A water company serving Maidenhead has fetched criticism for its response time to a major leak during an ongoing drought.

A burst water main reported was last Friday, September 30, Newlands Drive.

Floods of water could still be seen on the street the following Wednesday, October 5.

South East Water marked the repairs as complete the next day. On its online incident log and interactive map, the utility company said it would be ‘returning to make sure the area is left in its original state shortly,’

But residents were unhappy with the outcome. Keith Knowles who lives on the street, said a hole and a lot of clutter was left at the incident site.

“It’s the lack of care I find astonishing,” he said.

“It’s mind-blowing to me that it took them six days to repair it – it was pumping out thousands of gallons of water an hour. It was like a stream going down the road.

He added that it felt ‘hypocritical’ so soon after water companies, including South East Water, were asking its customers to be mindful of water usage during the ongoing drought in the south-east.

Water levels in some of South East’s reservoirs and underground aquifers are currently much lower than normal after the dry, hot, summer led to record-breaking high demand for water, the company has confirmed.

The south-east of England received less than half of the average rainfall during August.

Although September saw an increase in rainfall, the company ‘will need to continue to monitor this through the autumn and winter and evaluate whether changes can be made.’

Steve Benton, head of operations West, at South East Water apologised for the disruption caused by the burst main in Newlands Drive.

“The road [was] returned to its original state on Friday, 7 October. We have since attended the site to clear away resulting debris,” he said.

“We appreciate that seeing leaks when we are asking customers to be mindful of their water use is frustrating.

“During the last two months, we’ve seen a drastic 50 per cent rise in the number of leaks across our network of pipes, as a result of several factors, including the lack of rainfall and drying of the soil.

“We are therefore prioritising these accordingly and undertaking repairs as quickly as we can.”