What to expect in a water supply or quality incident
We always aim to provide the best possible service for you, but from time to time, there could be an incident involving part of our network that impacts your water supply or causes an interruption.
During an incident, we’ll provide up to date information, as and when it's available, but we know it’s sometimes difficult to know what to do. You can find out below what you can do if there's ever a water supply incident that affects your home.
How we'll contact you in an emergency
We'll be in touch in one (or more) of the following ways:
- Updates via SMS or automated calls
- Website updates via:
- In your area
- For major incidents visit our network latest page
- Social media updates via Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter)
- Door knocking (where appropriate)
- Letter dropping (where appropriate)
- Local community hubs (where appropriate) – e.g. car park
Priority Service customers get extra support
We’re here for you. If you need a bit of extra support, our Priority Services Register can help. You can register, update your details, or remove yourself from the register quickly and easily online.
What happens when we're made aware of an incident:
Issue is reported
An issue is reported by a customer or is picked up in our network which notifies us there is a problem.
Inspector investigates
An inspector is despatched to locate the issue whilst our office based teams look to determine the impact to customers.
Relevant teams mobilised
We identify the issue and mobilise the right expertise to fix the problem and provide you with support
If possible, water is rerouted
Our experts will investigate if we can reroute water from another part of the network or use tankers to add water directly into our network, to bring you back into water if you don’t have any.
If a burst, excavation begins
For everyone’s safety we’ll need to assess what’s underground. We may need to put in place traffic measures or let the emergency services know of road closures.
Pipe repaired, ground restored
Digging to the leak may take time depending what other utilities are located near our pipe. The type of damage will influence how long the repair will be and what is needed to fix it.
Water slowly returned to pipe
Once repaired we need to slowly re-fill the water pipe to ensure there’s not a surge of pressure which can cause a further burst.
Water restored to homes
Once we're happy the pipe is repaired and coping under the water pressure we will start water flowing to homes again.