Southern Water say they have found the leak and are working on restoring running water to the remaining 11 homes. Finn Macdiarmid reports.
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00:00Across the county, before the big day, many were making Christmas wishes.
00:04But in Strude, some people's only Christmas wish was to have running water.
00:08Now the majority of the 1,000 properties in Strude do have their water back
00:12after up to four days of disruption.
00:14But there are a few remaining without water,
00:17around the area of the Gunn Lane and A2 intersection.
00:21Since 5am on December 23rd, there were 1,000 properties
00:24that weren't able to use their hosepipes, taps or even toilets.
00:28And now it's been whittled down to just 11 homes.
00:32But for them, they've had five days of disruption
00:35during what should be a time of celebration.
00:37And it wasn't just homes.
00:39Some businesses, like this independent pharmacy, were also affected,
00:42meaning they couldn't give out prescriptions or have normal hygienic practices.
00:46Thankfully, Southern Water and their team were able to find the source of the leak
00:49after working through the night and using workers from other sites,
00:52right outside Strude's Quick Fit,
00:54one of the remaining properties now on their fifth day without water.
00:58I actually came in on my day off, I'd come down with my girlfriend
01:01and I had one of my colleagues shouting,
01:02we've got no water!
01:03And that's when I found out.
01:05We've had to turn away a few customers just because of the busyness.
01:08We have to run everything kind of manually,
01:10not everything's done properly now,
01:11or not all of it's run in the background, all done.
01:14So we've had to turn around for a bit.
01:16We've got a bit more on our plate recently.
01:17Because of the potentially dangerous effects of motor fluids
01:20and the lack of water to clean or sanitise them,
01:23it's impacted the businesses' ability to serve their customers.
01:26But it's not just the people who still lack water
01:28that suffered over the past five days.
01:31Over nearly a three-day period, it was excruciating.
01:39Because my central heating had packed up,
01:41because of the loss of water pressure,
01:43I had no heating, obviously no water.
01:50Even to just go to the loo, it meant going up to my son's,
01:54which fortunately is just up the road.
01:57Um, yeah, it's horrible.
01:59Michael's lived in Strude for 39 years
02:02and says he's never experienced disruption like this,
02:04but he was thankful that his water was restored on Christmas morning.
02:08A Southern Water spokesperson said,
02:10we're very sorry that a small number of customers in Strude
02:13are experiencing ongoing disruption to their water supply.
02:16We've arranged further bottled water deliveries,
02:18are redirecting water around our network where possible,
02:21and are working to fix this complex underground leak as quickly as possible.
02:25While many in Strude were able to celebrate their holidays
02:27in heated homes with running water,
02:29those still without the utility will undoubtedly
02:32have been disappointed over the Christmas period.
02:34Finn McDermott for CAME TV in Strude.