30 December

Latest update: 30 December 5.45pm

We’re really sorry for the impact on you and your family during the water supply incident that started on Monday 19th December. We understand that this was even more disruptive for you, due to festive plans at this time of the year. Your water supply has been returned to normal, and we wanted to give you an update.

We’ll always try and provide you with the best possible service. If we fall short of the standards we set ourselves, we’ll make sure we put it right. We're reviewing all customers who were impacted and we'll be in touch directly via letter, email or SMS if you're entitled to compensation. 

You can view information about our compensation payments on our Guaranteed Standards leaflet.

Please register for My Account or log in to check your contact details are up to date so we can make sure this reaches you as quickly as possible. 

What happened?

On average we supply 900 million litres of clean water every day, to a population of more than 3.8 million people. During the recent freeze/thaw incident, this demand increased to 1,050 million litres a day.

When the weather warmed up following the period of sub-zero temperatures, this caused more bursts than usual on our network and on our customers’ pipes, leading to low water pressure as reservoir levels were low and unable to recover. Even the strongest pipes can burst during these weather conditions, as the ground shifts and pipes expand, so our teams put our emergency plans into action.

We put extra teams of technicians in the impacted areas and ensured we had full stocks of fittings and fixtures to respond quickly to burst pipes, where they occurred. Our teams worked around the clock to repair over 180 burst pipes and fixed ten times more bursts than normal during the incident. Our network teams worked 24/7 to monitor and adjust the flow of water to make sure we could get water to where it was needed.

65 Affinity Water volunteers handed out over 96,000 bottles of water at emergency collection points, with another 70,000 bottles delivered to customers on our Priority Services Register. Two tankers were brought in to keep a hospital in supply. 

Whilst we still have some work to do, our network is now back to normal following the increase in burst pipes. 

Thank you

A big thank you to everyone who only used water for essential use during this period, and for everyone who prepared their home ahead of the cold spell by lagging their exposed pipes and leaving the heating on low to prevent pipes freezing and bursting. This makes a big difference as it helps to maintain water levels in storage reservoirs across our supply area. And of course, it also helps to protect your home from the damage caused by burst pipes.

If you want to know more about how to prepare your home for the next cold spell, take a look at our winter readiness page.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding during this time. If you'd like to leave us any feedback on how we handled this incident, we'd love to hear from you - please visit our feedback page.

Timeline of incident

23 December 9pm

We found and released the airlock in the network and started to build up the levels in the reservoir. Some customers in Bishop’s Stortford may still have low pressure tonight but this means that more customers should see an improvement in their water supply tomorrow and all being well, you’ll have a normal supply before Christmas Day.

23 December 6:45pm

We’ve found and released the airlock in the network affecting customers in Bishop’s Stortford.

21 December 7pm

We're working hard to stabilise the supply network for our customers.

21 December 11am

We've restored water to the majority of customers in Bishop's Stortford, Harlow, Ongar and Chipping who did not have water yesterday although some customers may still experience low pressure as we stablise the supply network. Some customers who did have water or had low pressure yesterday in Bishop's Stortford may now have no water or low pressures.

19 December 12.30pm

We've found some new bursts and are working hard to fix these as soon as we can, but we're sorry to say that you will continue to have low pressure or no water. We're delivering bottled water this afternoon to our most vulnerable customers on our Priority Service Register.

19 December 9:30am

We have teams of technicians in the area to investigate to find and fix the bursts to get your water flowing again soon. We’re also adjusting our network to get more water into the area. We’ve brought in extra team members who are working hard to make sure our most vulnerable customers have water.