Southern Water Testwood Supply Works outage hits thousands of Hampshire homes as customers learn of bill hikes

Homes in Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Totton, and parts of the New Forest have experienced a loss of water or low pressure – and more than 30 schools will remain closed on Thursday. Tankers were deployed on Wednesday to supply water for Southampton General Hospital.

The issue began on Wednesday morning after Southern Water issued an update confirming there was a technical problem at the Testwood water supply works preventing water from leaving the site. The company said in a statement on Thursday morning that the issue had been solved and customers will start to be reconnected later in the day.

It was announced this morning that Southern Water customers would see their bills increase by 53 per cent over the next five years, the highest percentage rise in the UK. The company proposed an even higher increase five-year increase, but this was slashed by regulator Ofwat by 16 per cent (£126). The average hike in bills is 36 per cent across England and Wales.

Speaking about the recent fault, Southern Water said: “We continue to work hard to restore supplies to Southampton, Eastleigh, Romsey and the New Forest. Overnight our teams have fixed the problem at the Testwood Water Supply Works and restarted the site. We’re now filling up the reservoir again with drinking water, ready to restore supply.

“This is a gradual process which must be done carefully and safely, but customers will start to be reconnected later today. We are opening bottled water stations today across the region and we will update on their locations and opening times from 8am. This is to make sure they have supplies and are ready to help you.

“We completed the first round of our bottled water deliveries to care homes and customers on our Priority Services Register overnight. We are planning to restart our second round of deliveries later today. If you need to be added to our Priority Service Register, please call 0330 303 0368. We are so sorry for the disruption this has caused you.”

Jill Woolger, 66, from Dibden Purlieu near the New Forest, has been without water since Wednesday morning and said she only had around a litre of bottled water left to last her for the evening. The retired nurse, who lives with an autoimmune condition, is registered on the firm’s priority list and was told she could expect bottled water to be delivered to her home by 7pm, but claims she did not receive any. She said: “I think what I’m so fed up about is that I’m on the priority service, but I haven’t had any water.”

Ms Woolger lives with ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammatory bowel disease that can cause ulcers, and psoriatic arthritis, and said her autoimmune conditions can make her “more prone to infections”. She added that having water to keep her house clean is vital to avoid impacting her bowel movements. She claimed water issues in her area seemed to be a recurrent problem after being hit with outages three times in two years, and criticised Southern Water for not offering better support to customers on the priority list.

Southern Water was fined £31.9m by Ofwat earlier this year for missing targets on reducing pollution, leaks, supply interruptions and low customer satisfaction.