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Water outage in the the south-east

 
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Mars
 Mars
(@editor)
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Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 4211
Topic starter 14/01/2026 3:23 pm  

We’ve got family in the South East (East Sussex and Kent) and it’s now been a full week without water for them. I know a lot of members here are also based in the South East, so I wanted to ask: have any of you been affected by this as well?

I find it genuinely staggering that something like this can be allowed to drag on for so long in the UK. We like to present ourselves as a modern, resilient, first-world country, yet people are left without a basic utility for days on end, with little clarity and seemingly no urgency. We've been without water for day (on more than one occasion and never longer than that) and it's tricky when it comes to toilet use after a few hours, let along days, let alone a week. 

It also raises some questions about infrastructure resilience, contingency planning and how prepared we really are for failures whether that’s water, power or gas. For those of us already thinking about energy security, grid reliance and self-sufficiency, this feels like another warning sign. 

Would be interested to hear what the situation is like where you are, and how it’s being handled on the ground. I've seen countless stories of thousands of water bottles being dispensed to help, but can't help to think about the amount of plastic that has entered that equation as a result.


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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
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14/01/2026 3:33 pm  

We think alike @editor ! All those bottles (and I expect that the water authorities are buying back water they supplied to the companies who bottle the water at a substantial increase in price too! We are fine here in Berkshire but, like you feel that though we have reserve energy supplies for emergency coverage, this is not the case with mains potable water. In fact, the situation is more fragile now as we have non-vented tankery that replaced that vented storage ‘reserve’ for when the water authorities pumps falter. Ho-Hum, one step forward, two steps back… Toodles.


Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.


   
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Transparent
 Transparent
(@transparent)
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15/01/2026 11:58 am  

1: There are homes at the Lizard peninsula, SW Cornwall, which also haven't had mains water since Storm Goretti.

However this isn't news, because the Press and those who work in Whitehall don't live anywhere near there.

 

2: On 13th May 2024, South West Water had to cease supplies to a large area around Brixham in Devon.

The problem was Cryptosporidium contamination, which causes severe vomiting.
Supplies were finally reconnected and fresh water available to all households on 8th July.
That's 56 days.

I welcome the interest now being taken by Central Government in the state of our utilities after just 7 days without water in East Sussex and Kent.
The utility networks lack essential resilience, which isn't reflected in the salaries of those in Management positions.

 

3: I have a well  🤗 

I have spare parts and I can repair and maintain the pump, filtration and purification systems at a speed which water companies can only dream of.

WaterPump

Save energy... recycle electrons!


   
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Abernyte
 Abernyte
(@abernyte)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 254
15/01/2026 3:45 pm  

Item 3  😀 😀 

As do I, as a backup to to the main. /smug



   
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Mars
 Mars
(@editor)
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Posts: 4211
Topic starter 15/01/2026 4:41 pm  

We have an original, bricked Victorian well in back garden (that's something like 20 m deep according to the previous owners) and I keep thinking about getting it hooked up to the house... maybe that should be a project this summer. There are just a lot of regs about 'connecting it' to the same pipework that feeds the water from mains.   


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Transparent
 Transparent
(@transparent)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 2997
15/01/2026 4:48 pm  

Posted by: @editor
↑

There are just a lot of regs about 'connecting it' to the same pipework that feeds the water from mains.

Indeed!
Any contamination in the well water would be transferred into the water main, making your neighbours 'unwell'.

So don't do that.

 

As a starting point I'd recommend using the well water for flushing toilets because that's a heavy use of water.

Re-plumb your toilet(s) to be supplied from a tank in the attic.
Connect the well-pump to replenish that tank whenever the water level drops to a minimum level which you can decide.

When you're ready, I'll post here the possible electrics and sensor arrangements to achieve that.


Save energy... recycle electrons!


   
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