Thames Water issues major update on east London burst mains chaos

An end to the water outage which has hit thousands of Londoners looks finally to be in sight.Around ten thousand customers in east London and Essex were left without supplies, or with low water pressure, since the weekend, due to multiple burst mains. Hundreds of residents have been forced to queue for water for hours in their cars during searing temperatures this week, as engineers battled to fix the leaks. In an update on Thursday morning, Thames Water said it made “good progress” overnight. A statement posted on its website reads: “Good progress continues to be made in the area, with teams continuing to work on reparing the broken pipes and introducing water into the area where possible.“Three repairs on High Road, Daisy Road, and Chigwell Road have now been completed, and our engineers have carefully reintroduced water to the network, which means the pressure has increased and water returned to further customers overnight.“We’re continuing to work towards all customers being back in supply by tomorrow (Friday), many will return sooner and this will depend on how quickly the network recovers. Tankers and engineers remain in the area to ensure this happens as quickly and safely as possible.“We know some customers have been without water for a long time and we’re continuing to provide support while this work is under way, including bottled water deliveries to those registered on our Priority Services Register and through bottled water stations.“Bottled water stations will be open today, and we'll advise here once they're open.”