How we manage incidents

If customers are without water for more than 24 hours, we’ll ensure that you have at least 10 litres available each day (per person). In that rare instance that your water supply is interrupted for over 5 days, we'll make sure there's at least 20 litres available each day (per person). 

Stations will be determined by each incident but we usually set up in local supermarket or pub car parks. These stations are normally a source of water from tanks for you to collect water from. We update these station locations on our website and our phone line. It is important if attending a water station to bring your own water containers.

It’s difficult to estimate a repair time until we know what we are dealing with and in many cases, excavation has begun, and problem identified. We will keep you updated on progress via our website and social media channels. Our aim will always be to get water flowing back to homes as quickly as possible.

Following a burst main, you may also experience some discolouration to your water when the supply is restored. This is normally short lived as we carry out flushing of the water mains. Once the work is complete and your supply is restored, please allow time for us to complete the flushing and then run your first mains fed cold water tap for up to 30 minutes to clear any discoloured water in your pipes.

If you're on a water meter, and we’ve told you to run your taps to clear discoloured water, you can claim for an allowance off your next bill.

If you are on the Priority Service register our aim is to support those customers most in need and dependent on water as quickly as possible. You will be contacted via SMS (text) or telephone call as soon as we are aware of the issue. If we do need to visit your home, we will always knock and wait as we know you may need more time to get to the door and if you have a password we will use it. 

The reason you are on the register is important, and each reason is assigned a priority. We wish to support as many customers on our Priority Service register as possible. Based on the scale of the incident and resource available we will always look to support with bottled water in order of priority this includes hospitals, prisons, and care homes.

If you are experiencing difficulties and need bottled water, then please call us on 0345 702 3797.

You can sign up to access our Priority Services for free, it only takes a few minutes and you can pick which services you’d like to receive.

Priority Tiers

• Priority 1:
  Dialysis, feeding pump and automated medication, poor sense of taste or smell or water dependant.
• Priority 2
  Unable to answer door, cognitive impairment (inc. dementia), nebuliser and apnoea monitor, heart lung ventilator, oxygen concentrator, blind, stair lift/hoist/electric bed, physical impairment, development condition, mental health, temp - post hospital, chronic serious illness, oxygen use, or restricted hand movement.
• Priority 3
  Partially sighted, medically dependent - showering/bathing, careline/telecare or hearing impairment.
• Priority 4
  Pensionable age, unable to communicate in English, families with children under 5, medicine refrigeration, additional presence preferred, temp - life change, temp - young adult or speech impairment.

It’s rare for us to visit you without a pre-arranged appointment, but we might need to in an emergency. All our employees carry identification cards which display their name, photograph and our company logo. Always check a caller’s identity card before letting them into your home, and if you’ve agreed a password in advance, make sure that they give it to you.

If we interrupt your supply due to a burst main and you are not back in water within 12 hours we will pay you £20 and £10 for every further 24 hours. See our Customer Promise for more information.

This is always a rare occurrence but if we ever have to tell you not to drink the water coming into your home or boil it first, we will always hand-deliver information to your door along with adding information and updates to our website and social media channels.