Much Wenlock residents have little or no water for third night

The water company says engineers and a tankering team worked through the night to restore the system in the area.

The issues are being blamed on high demand during the hot weather and the ability to treat water quick enough to put it into the system.

Customers in Much Wenlock and Telford were first without water on Monday, whilst on Tuesday around 2,000 homes in Much Wenlock, Telford and Whitchurch were without water.

Commenting on the continuing supply issues Councillor David Turner from Much Wenlock said:

"For the third night running many Much Wenlock household experienced either no water running from their taps or low pressure. It seems that the water supply is restored again in Much Wenlock this morning but there was clearly a hydrant problem last night.

"When this is over there needs to be an in-depth review of what’s gone wrong with Severn Trent’s network, their emergency contingency arrangements, and their very limp communications strategy. Bottled water will be at Wm Brookes School from about 9.30am today - I think that Severn Trent daren’t risk another night of dry taps."

A Severn Trent spokesperson said:

"All customers in Much Wenlock should now have their water supplies back to normal after our engineers and tankering team worked through the night to restore the system in the area.

"We know customers have experienced supply interruptions during the evening demand for water this week so as a precaution we're setting up two bottled water collection points. These will be open this morning at William Brookes School in Farley Road and Sainsbury’s in Whitburn Street, Bridgnorth."

Severn Trent asks customers to use water carefully

Severn Trent is asking its customers to use water carefully during the current warm weather to help avoid low pressures as demand for water is significantly up.

Severn Trent has confirmed that they have plenty of water stored and reservoir levels are healthy. That water, however, then needs to be treated through its treatment works before being pumped into the supply.

As fast as it is being produced and put into supply, it is being used by customers which can cause isolated areas of low pressure for people.

The company has increased its production capacity by millions of extra litres a day, but it’s also asking customers to be neighbourly and help to use their water carefully to try and prevent low pressure for their communities.

They are specifically asking people to:

- Put their garden sprinklers away – a sprinkler can use as much as 1,000 litres of drinking water in just one hour – which is more water than a family of four would normally use in a whole day.

- Take a shower rather than a bath - It uses 40 litres less water and it’s quicker, which means you can get back out and enjoy the sunshine

- Avoid washing their cars, but if they have to use a bucket and sponge rather than a hose. If you clean your car for 30 minutes you’ll use 50 times less water with a bucket instead of a hose.

Doug Clarke, Severn Trent’s water efficiency expert, said: “We need people to think about how they’re using water – using a sprinkler might green up your lawn but that water would be better used for drinking or washing.

“We’re going to continue producing as much water as we can – and yesterday we produced a whopping 300 million more litres than we’d normally expect to – but our pipes are can only carry so much water. And that’s why we just need people to think long and hard about their water usage while this hot weather continues.”