Thames Water outage: Homes across London cut off and schools close - The Telegraph

Thames Water outage: Homes across London cut off and schools close

Large swathes of homes in London have been left without water or with no pressure after a fault was reported at a plant in the capital.

Schools have confirmed they will remain closed on Wednesday amid widespread disruption as MPs called on Thames Water to update residents when supplies will return to normal.

Thames Water has said it is preparing to bring tankers to support hospitals with thousands understood to have been affected by the outage.

The firm said it expected water to return on Wednesday, but children across London are already thought to have missed school as a result of the chaos.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry to customers in West London who are experiencing low pressure or no water.

“We’re working hard to fix the issue, which was caused by a power supply problem which has affected our Ashford and Hampton water treatment works in west London. We’re now back in power and expect water supply to return across the day.

“As a precaution, we’re bringing tankers into the area to support local hospitals and critical infrastructure.

“Getting water supplies back on is our top priority and while our team work on this we’re identifying everyone in the affected area who has pre-registered with us as having special requirements, such as being medically reliant on water, so we can get in touch and make sure we give them the help and support they need.”

Initially Thames Water stated households in more than 50 postcodes had no water or low pressure as a result of a power fault at a water plant in West London.

But that list was later revised to 35 areas mainly concentrated across South West and West London. Schools in Twickenham and Richmond were among the first to confirm they will shut.

Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney tweeted: “I’ve just learnt that areas across the constituency will have no, or low, water pressure today due to a power supply issue at the Ashford and Hampton Treatment Works. I’ve reached out to @thameswater to ask when residents can expect the issue to be resolved.”

While Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem MP for Twickenham, wrote: “Info here re local lack of water/water pressure. I’m hearing some schools locally aren’t opening this morning due lack of water. Our supply in Whitton also stopped this morning @thameswater need to sort this soon!”

Then added in a later post: “I’m trying to get more information for local residents and alarmed that schools are having to close because of this issue @thameswater.”