Southern Water crews are still working to repair a burst main some nine hours after workmen first arrived on site.
The main burst near to St George’s school in Westwood Road in the early hours of this morning (June 8). Residents in Rumfields Road discovered the area, including properties and gardens, was flooded when they got up.
Two fire crews and Kent Police were called to the scene at 7.28am. Firefighters worked to pump the water out of two properties and to make the area safe.
Southern Water reported a team was on site at 9.56am to deal with the ‘major burst.’ Many residents have been left without water or with extremely low water pressure.
Southern Water said vulnerable customers on their priority service list would be supplied with bottled water.
The water firm said it was “making progress on a complex problem.”
The last update from the firm, at 6.14pm, says: “We’d like to apologise to our customers in the Broadstairs area who have no water or low pressure. We are still experiencing networks problems arising after a major burst in the Rumfields area. We know this is very disruptive but we are working as quickly as we can and will continue to update our social media and web pages.”
As soon as we're 100 per cent confident our work is recharging the local water mains to normal pressure, we'll let you know here, on Twitter and on our website. If you are experiencing low pressure or no water, we do apologise.
— Southern Water (@SouthernWater) June 8, 2019
Traffic in the area has been backed up in Westwood and all surrounding roads since the incident. Rumfields Road is closed and there were delays at Nash Road to Coffin Corner.
The Westwood Road is closed eastbound from Northwood Road roundabout near Westwood Cross. There is a diversion in place along Northwood Road, Margate Road, Pysons Road, Fairfield Road and the Broadstairs Road.
UPDATE: 7.29pm– Southern Water has restored water supplies but is still working to fix the burst main.
A spokesman said: “Customers may experience some discolouration, this is normal when there has been a disruption and is only temporary. Again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
Another bad situation for southern water
5 people where I work have had norovirus the sickness bug made by contaminated faeces in the water. Southern water need to explain why people are ill because they pump sewage into our water system.
Rubbish comment and pointless. Prove it 5 people had norovirus. I would say more because they wanted a sick day. Lol
Rubbish comment, Rebecca. To be honest most of your comments are.
I think you are talking complete nonsense. The water company is not pumping sewage into our water system. If that were the case huge swathes of Thanet’s population would be going down with dysentery and worse.
The fact that 5 people at your place of work have gone down with norovirus is most likely down to inadequate personal hygiene by someone in your office.