Southern Water’s response to outage which left 58,000 homes without supply branded ‘woeful’ by Hampshire County Council leader, Cllr Nick Adams-King

“WOEFUL, chaotic and un-coordinated” – the leader of Hampshire County Council has blasted Southern Water’s response to an outage which hit thousands of homes, schools and businesses.

As reported in the A&T, the firm blamed a technical fault at its Testwood water supply site in Totton, which was identified late Tuesday evening. However, HCC leader Cllr Nick Adams-King has said the cause was a result of planned work.

Around 58,000 homes were impacted, including many in Calmore, Totton, Ashurst, Lyndhurst, Lymington and the Waterside.

Southern Water confirmed today (Friday) that all affected customers had their water supply restored by 2am.

Hampshire County Council hosted a meeting with Southern Water chiefs alongside leaders of local councils and key partners on Thursday, including New Forest East MP Sir Julian Lewis, and leader of the district council, Cllr Jill Cleary.

The meeting had been arranged prior to the outage to discuss the firm’s investment plans.

Speaking afterwards, Cllr Adams-King said: “Southern Water's communication has been woeful, their organisation of emergency water supplies chaotic, uncoordinated and beset by problems, and it was clear there had been no learning whatsoever from the three similar events over the last two years.

“This problem has been caused by works they had planned. Southern Water should have been prepared for the risk that their supply would not return as they planned after they had re-started the Testwood water supply plant. It's incredible to me that they did not prepare for this eventuality.”

He said information provided by Southern Water had been “misleading and incorrect”, adding: “Given the events of the last two years it is simply unacceptable that the outcomes of the last 48 hours should have been even worse and Southern Water seem even less prepared than the previous instances.

“While [the] meeting has been in the diary for some time, and we expected to be discussing Southern Water’s long-term plans for investment among other things, the timing has meant that we’ve been able to hold the company’s chief executive and senior officers to account and to ask very direct and challenging questions in relation to their response to the latest incident.

“In particular, we discussed the location of bottled water locations, the problems of limiting collection to those arriving in cars only, delays in bottled water deliveries as well as the growth in the number of vulnerable citizens registering for priority delivery, and the concerning delays experienced by this group.”

Cllr Adams-King said Southern Water must have “much better” planning for this kind of occurrence, adding: “They need a more resilient system of distributing water, be upfront with the public about the impact and what is actually happening on the ground and work with their partners to ensure residents and businesses are helped in a timely and efficient way.”

He said he was “encouraged” by how seriously Southern Water responded to concerns raised in the meeting and accepted the need to dramatically improve their response to future incidents.

Offers of help with water distribution and the identification of sites from which Southern Water could have operated from had earlier been rejected by Southern Water, he said, with “no learning, contact or forward thinking” undertaken since the last outages.

He added: “Southern Water need to rebuild their preparedness for these events. Hampshire County Council and our partners stand ready to do all we can to support with this. The fact they have not engaged is incredibly frustrating.”

Southern Water’s managing director for water, Tim McMahon, said: "We are sorry for the disruption caused to customers over the last two days, and would like to thank them for their patience as we worked to restore supply.

“We also apologise to those customers on the priority services register who had to wait an unacceptably long time to receive their water deliveries. We'll review this incident carefully and learn the lessons to improve our processes."

The incident forced many schools to close across the New Forest including: Bartley Junior, New Forest Academy, Noadswood School, Cadland Primary, Wildground Infant and Junior schools, Manor Church of England, Calmore Infant and Junior, Hazelwood Infant, Hounsdown, Hythe Primary, Greenwood School, Marchwood Infant and Testwood School.

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said its hospitals – including Southampton General and Princess Anne Hospital – were also affected, with tankers sent to ensure supplies were topped up.

Cllr David Harrison, a Lib Dem for Totton and Marchwood, raised questions about the issue of compensation. He said: “I feel that whatever figure you might choose it won't adequately compensate all people. Everybody's circumstances are different and so the impact varies.

“What if you are a carer? Or have a large family? What price do you put on missing a school day? What about all those people who weren't directly affected but found themselves stuck behind long traffic queues trying to get to work or go shopping?

“No doubt Southern Water will have to pay whatever the regulations say, by showing a deduction from your next bill – the same bill that will show a £56 increase, allowed by the regulator, Ofwat – so that they can invest in the infrastructure that will help make the system more robust in the future.”

He added: “I think that Southern Water have proved themselves more adept at circulating money than they have moving water. In the same way that they get fined for polluting our rivers and seas, the cost is eventually passed onto us customers.

“Welcome to the world of wealth and unaccountability that can be achieved when you have a monopoly in a capitalist system.”

Southern Water has advised that some customers may experience airlocks in their pipes, which should be resolved by running the taps, as well as discoloured water, which is “normal”.