Thousands of homes and businesses in south London have been left without water or have reduced supply after a pipe burst in the Crystal Palace area.
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00:00Hello, I'm here in Sydenham on Southend Lane where Thames Water have set up a water bottle
00:07station since yesterday after a burst pipe left thousands of residents in the area without
00:13water or with low water pressure. The incident occurred on February the 12th but as of the
00:20morning of February the 13th many local residents are still experiencing low water pressure
00:28or have no water at all. As you can see behind me people queuing up to pick up water bottles.
00:34Thames Water has since apologised to customers stating that engineers had located the source
00:39of the leak and were working to restore water to customers and fix the pipe as soon as possible.
00:45Now the affected post goes SE19, SE20, SE23, SE26 and 27 and SW17 as well. Now Thames Water
00:55has said they are sorry for customers in Crystal Palace and Sydenham who are experiencing low
01:00water pressure or no water due to a burst pipe. They also confirmed that tankers had
01:06been deployed to infuse network with water and impacted properties should see their water
01:13supply return over the course of the day. Now that was yesterday and as of today people
01:18still don't have water. The company is also contacting customers who had pre-registered
01:24as having special requirements such as being medically reliant on water to ensure they
01:30receive specific help and support. Now all of this isn't coming at a great time for Thames
01:36Water. It comes just as the company has requested a £3 billion bailout and asked to raise bills
01:43by 53% for customers despite criticisms of the services and water spillages. Now Ofwat
01:50did reject the 53% rise but did confirm that water bills could rise by 35%. Here is what
01:58locals in Crystal Palace had to say about Thames Water and potential bill rises.
02:05I'm disabled and I've got arthritis so I need quite a lot of baths and things to help me
02:13so I think it would be quite difficult for me.
02:16It's not good. Especially already in the cost of living crisis that we're already in. I think it's going to leave a lot of
02:22work class people specifically very devastated. So I think it is important that we look after
02:30our environment and I think there is significant investment required because our waterways
02:39and our sewers are ancient. Now additionally bottled water is being delivered to customers
02:46as well on the priority services register which does include 11 care homes and 29 schools
02:53in South East London that have been affected by the disruption.