Properties in Broadstairs, St Peter’s and areas of Ramsgate are without water, or suffering low pressure, again today (January 30).
Reports of the supply interruption began at around 10am. It is understood water supply is expected to return shortly (as of 11.15am).
A Southern Water spokesman said: “We’re sorry some customers in the Broadstairs and Ramsgate area may have suffered low pressure or loss of water. This was due to continuing maintenance in the area. All supplies should have returned within an hour of any outage.”
This is the fifth outage in two months– 19 December, 12 January, 15 January, 21 January and today (January 30).
This was initially due to a burst water main, followed by multiple power failures at Rumfields WBS.
19 December 2022
- This was caused by a burst water main. Supply went off in the early hours of December 19 and was restored by around 9pm on December 20.
12 and 15 January 2023
- These outages were due to local power interruptions, which tripped the booster pumps on site.
21 January 2023
- A mains power failure occurred and generators also failed due to a faulty starter motor.
Overnight electrical maintenance work, which included the installation of a new temporary generator and mains fail testing, was carried out at Rumsfield Water Station following the last outage (prior to today).
Southern Water said the site is now permanently manned until the new starter motor is installed, which provides resilience if there is a power issue, as the team will be able to switch power over onto the generator and keep customers in supply.
Southern Water says it is currently upgrading the Rumfields site and anticipates work to improve the water tower will be completed next month.
Southern Water are simply not fit for purpose. If they aren’t cutting water off for residents, they are dumping sewage all along our coast.
If this was any other company without the benefit of a monopoly in the market they would have gone out of business long ago.
Given that water is vital for life, one would have thought that there would be back-up pumps etc, so that whilst one is running, the other is being maintained.
I imagine the fire service has such systems in place.
As long as the shareholders get their money !
Any comment from our MP?
According to the article this disruption is the result of “continuing maintenance”, quite what are they meant to do, people complain when there’s an outage that they feel is due to lack of maintenance and again when its the result of maintenance.
I’m sure there are many that repair their car only when it breaks down and others who put up with the inconvenience of being without their vehicle whilst its being serviced.
They could at the very least warn people in advance, so that they can fill kettles, buckets, etc.
Don’t be daft, most people should now have a litre or 2 of tap water under the sinks for emergencies by now!
That’s true! People could still take showers, do washing, etc around any disruptions though.
Hi Rosie, how do you prevent bacterial growth in said water?
Any time I store tap water for painting with acrylics, the sterilised bottles end up with mould all over them thanks to thanet crap water quality…
Kettle and water filter which need to be kept filled up to be on the safe side- I agree the standard of tap water here is awful!
Why should they need to? With the profits. Southern water make we shouldn’t be without water every other week.
You don’t even live there. Don’t forget, I know you.
Lc. Stop attempting to defend the indefensible.
Nationalisation (of everything) is the only solution.
It can’t be worse and could be a lot better.
BTW Aren’t you complaining about people complaining?
What a shambles. It’s about time they started spending the money on the infrastructure instead of shareholders / executives bonuses and come into the modern day. I thought you were given bonuses for good service and not for failure after failure. Large organisations seem to think that saying “Sorry” is ok and gets them off the hook.
Have arranged a TDC Scrutiny meeting on the 16th February to begin discussions on these water outages and low water pressure.
Thank you Rob.
Intervention is needed.
17 days time. You’re obviously treating it as an emergency… NOT!
There’s not a lot Cllr Yates can do to directly fix Southern Water’s cockups.
However, he has called a meeting of councillors, probably at the earliest opportunity of getting them all together.
It’s good that some of our elected representatives take an interest in local problems.
I’m not blaming Cllr Yates particularly, more TDC as a whole. Are their schedules really so busy that they can’t get together within a day or two’s notice?
What do you do about no2’s if you can’t flush. Presumably the veggie patch will earn some much needed steroid-like growth?