UPDATED: Water supply issues in Camber, Rye and Winchelsea

 

UPDATE 6 October

 

We would like to apologise again to all those affected by a loss of supply and low water pressure in Rye, Camber and Winchelsea in late September, into early October.  

This has been a very difficult incident and has had a huge impact on residents and businesses in the area.  

Although all customers have been back in supply for several days, we are continuing our work to repair the leak which is under the railway line in a rural area, so you will see us continue to work in the area.  

For all of those affected by this we will get in touch with you shortly about Guaranteed Standards of Service (GSS) payments.  

More information about this can be found here Guaranteed standards of service (southernwater.co.uk)  

Businesses that have been affected will be paid GSS via their retailers. The amount will depend on the affected areas and times out of supply. 

UPDATE 2 October 9.30am

“We’ve made good progress on the emergency repairs to re zone of water supplies to our customers in Rye, Camber and Winchelsea.  

All our customers are now back in supply with 350 customers who had low pressure or intermittent supply being brought back into supply overnight.

 Tankers are still pouring water into our network in some areas while we recharge the network. Bottled water stations are now closed. 

 We’re extremely sorry the impact this burst water main has had on the community and we appreciate your patience and help by contacting us to hep us fix the problems with low pressure and intermittent supplies. “

 

Update on repair of broken main

• We’ve isolated the broken section of the main and we were successful in bypassing this using a parallel main running under the railway line. This helped us to return the majority of our customers, but one area to piped mains supply.  

• We’ll keep tankers in the area to support the Rye Town supply until we’re confident that reliable service has been restored. 

  

 If you do not have water

We’re monitoring water pressures 24/7, but if you have any intermittent supply or pressure loss, please contact us on 0330 303 0368. 

 

When you’re back on supply, you may also see that your water is discoloured. This is normally resolved when water is flushed through pipes and should clear when you run the tap. Read more here: www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/drinking-water-quality/my-water-looks-unusual   

Update 1 October 7.30pm

We’re sorry that customers are still experiencing issues with water supplies in Rye, Camber and Winchelsea.  

Nearly all our customers are now back on mains supply, as we have rerouted water to around 4,900 customers. Tankering is still supporting in some areas to limit supply interruptions and low pressure while we recharge the network.   

There are still around 350 customers in the Rye area who have low pressure or intermittent supply and we’re looking to bring them back into supply overnight. In the meantime, we’re continuing to deliver bottled water to those affected.   

We’re extremely sorry for the ongoing impact this is having, and we’re working hard to get supplies back to normal overnight.    

Update on repair of broken main:  

• We’ve isolated the broken section of the main and we're aiming to bypass it by directing supplies via a parallel main running under the railway line. This will enable us to return all but one area to piped mains supply by morning if all goes according to plan. 

• We’re also working on a solution to allow us to restore mains supply water to the Rye Town areas. If our work is successful, 1,445 properties will be rezoned, and full service restored to all of our customers. We’ll keep tankers in the area to support the Rye Town supply until we’re confident that reliable service has been restored.

Bottled water stations  

The bottled water station we’re using today (Sunday 1 Oct) at Rye Station (TN31 7AW) will be closing this evening.   

Monday 2 October, Western Car Park at New Lydd Road in Camber (TN31 7RB) will be open from 8am until 9pm.  

If you do not have water  

We’re monitoring water pressures 24/7, but if you have any intermittent supply or pressure loss, please contact us on 0330 303 0368.  

When you’re back on supply, you may also see that your water is discoloured. This is normally resolved when water is flushed through pipes and should clear when you run the tap. Read more here: www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/drinking-water-quality/my-water-looks-unusual    

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels. 

UPDATE 1 October 4pm

We’re sorry that customers experiencing disruption to their water supply in Rye, Camber and Winchelsea. 

We’re stabilising the situation, nearly all our customers are back on supply, around 4,900 customers being served by re routed mains, tankering and a combination of both.  

We have expanding our tankering operation to reduce the risk of supply interruptions and low pressure to areas we are tankering to.  

We have around 350 customers in the southern Rye who we are investigating in more detail as some are on low pressure or intermittent supply. All have had bottled water deliveries.  

We very sorry for the impact this is having and we are working hard to resolve this today and will continue to deliver bottled water to this area until this is fixed.   

  

Update on repair of broken main 

• We’ve isolated the broken section of the main and we are looking to bypass this broken section, by directing supplies via a parallel water main running under the railway line. The valves are buried and inoperable, and we have specialist contractors on site to free them up.  

  

• We are testing the use of another pipe to supply water to the Rye Town areas and preparing to connect and clean pipes ahead of resupply. If our work is successful, 1,445 properties will be rezoned, and connected back to the mains and our tankers can be redeployed elsewhere.  

Bottled water stations 

The bottled water station we’re using today at Rye Station (TN31 7AW) will not be used tomorrow. Instead we will use Western Car Park at New Lydd Road in Camber (TN31 7RB ). 

If you have no water 

We are monitoring water pressures 24/7, but if you have any intermittent supply or pressure loss, please contact us on 0330 303 0368 

We are also continuing to deliver bottled water, so no one should be without water while we are repairing the trunk main which is challenging.  

When you are back on supply, you may also see that your water is discoloured. This is normally resolved when water is flushed through pipes and should clear when you run the tap. Read more here: www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/drinking-water-quality/my-water-looks-unusual   

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.   

UPDATE 1 October 10.10am

We’re sorry to customers in the Rye, Camber and Winchelsea area who are still experiencing issues with their water supply.  

Fixing the broken main update 

We’re continuing our work on the broken main causing this disruption. It has been a complex operation so far, cutting back thick vegetation and digging deep trenches to find the buried pipe, which runs under a railway line.    

Fixing it will take time, so we are re-directing water supplies to go around the repair site.  We will provide a further update around 2PM. 

Water supply updates and timelines

• Customers in Winchelsea and Rye Harbour - your water supply should be more stable as we have completed work to redirect through alternative mains supplies.
• Customers living in areas of higher ground around Rye - we are continuing to supply your mains from tankers as the water pressure is not sufficient. We are working on alternative plans to get you back on the mains supply in the next day or so.
• Customers in Rye town and Camber areas - we are still working on alternative solutions for mains supply so we will continue using relays of tankers to keep the water flowing. You may still experience occasional interruptions to water supply and low pressure as the tankers change over. If this continues for more than a couple of hours, it might be an airlock, so please do contact us so we can help you.

We are monitoring water pressures 24/7, but if you have any intermittent supply or pressure loss, please contact us on 0330 303 0368

We are also continuing to deliver bottled water, so no one should be without water while we are repairing the trunk main which is challenging. 

When you are back on supply, you may also see that your water is discoloured. This is normally resolved when water is flushed through pipes and should clear when you run the tap. Read more here: www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/drinking-water-quality/my-water-looks-unusual  

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.  

One bottled water station is open today.

• Rye Station, TN31 7AW - open from 8am to 9pm 

Please check our website and social channels for the latest updates

UPDATE 30 September 9.30pm

We're very sorry that some customers in Winchelsea Beach, Rye Harbour and areas of central Rye, including around Cinque Port Street are experiencing supply interruptions. We are flushing the main water supply overnight’ so you may experience some interruptions to supply throughout the night and into the early morning.

We are delivering bottled water to everyone without water in the Southern Rye area (including Rock Channel Quay) and other areas still experiencing intermittent supplies.  

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.  

We will have one bottled water station open from 8am to 9pm at Rye Station, TN31 7AW. 

Please check our website and social channels for the latest updates.  We plan to update you around 9am tomorrow.   

UPDATE 30 September 6.30pm

We’re sorry to customers in the Rye area who are still experiencing issues with their water supply.

We’ve started to work on the broken main that has caused this disruption. It has been a very complex operation so far, involving us needing to cut back thick vegetation and dig deep trenches to get to the pipe, which also runs under a railway line.

Fixing it will take time, so we’re looking at directing water supplies around the repair site. This is being investigated at the moment.

We’ve had to complete urgent maintenance on site at our reservoir, to ensure supplies continued into the night and tomorrow. We’re sorry for this temporary disruption in Winchelsea Beach, Point Hill, areas of central Rye and Rye Harbour, pressure is rising again and supplies should be restored in the next one to two hours.

If you don’t have water in these areas, please let us know on 0330 303 0368 as this may be due to airlocks, which we can attend to. By informing us you are helping us to work in the right place.

Customers are being fed by relays of tankers in the following areas – Point Hill, Camber, Rye Town and Central Rye. You may experience interruptions to water supply and low pressure as the tankers change over.

We have increased the number of tankers we're using to minimise this risk. However sometimes, again, the system suffers from airlocks, so please do contact us if you lose supply for more than an hour, as then we can come and attend to the problem.

Customers back on supply, may also notice some discolouration. This is completely normal when water is flushed through pipes and will clear when you run the tap. Read more: www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/drinking-water-quality/my-water-looks-unusual

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to all those without water in the Southern Rye area (including Rock Channel Quay) and other areas still experiencing intermittent supplies.

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.

Two bottled water stations are open today at:

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB.
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW

They will be open until 9pm this evening. ONLY the Rye Station bottled water station will open on Sunday 1 October, and it will be open from 8am to 9pm.

Please check our website and social channels for the latest updates

UPDATE 30 September 3.30pm

We’re sorry that our customers in East Sussex are still experiencing issues with their water supply.

We’ve now started the complex repair on the main that caused the disruption. We needed to isolate it to complete the repair, so tankers have been brought in to inject water into the network and keep your taps running and toilets flushing.

Customers in the Winchelsea, Rye Harbour area should see supplies back to normal. If you find you don’t have water in these areas, please let us know on 0330 303 0368 as this may be due to airlocks, which we can attend to. By informing us you are helping us to work in the right place.

Customers are being fed by relays of tankers in the following areas – Point Hill, Camber, Rye Town and Central Rye. You may experience interruptions to water supply and low pressure as the tankers change over.

We have increased the number of tankers we're using to minimise this risk. However sometimes, again, the system suffers from airlocks, so please do contact us if you lose supply for more than an hour, as then we can come and attend to the problem.

Customers back on supply, may also notice some discolouration. This is completely normal when water is flushed through pipes and will clear when you run the tap. Read more: www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/drinking-water-quality/my-water-looks-unusual

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to all those without water in the Southern Rye area (including Rock Channel Quay) and other areas still experiencing intermittent supplies.

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.

Two bottled water stations are open today at:

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB.
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW

They will be open until 9pm this evening. ONLY the Rye Station bottled water station will open on Sunday 1 October, and it will be open from 8am to 9pm.

UPDATE 30 September 9am

We’re pleased to say that the majority of our customers in Rye, Camber and Winchelsea should now have their water back. If you don’t have water, please call us on 0330 303 0368.

We have now located the major leak that has caused this disruption. This has taken longer than we expected as has been a very complex operation that involved cutting thick vegetation along with digging deep trenches in a rural area. 

The next step is to isolate it further and repair it, this work is starting today. Due to the complexity this may not be completed until Sunday. 

Around 910 properties in Rye and Point Hill that have had supply return may have lower pressure than normal but should see supply back thanks to the additional tankers injecting water along with properties being put back onto mains water supply.

As supply is coming back residents in this area may see discoloured water, this is normal and you can also expect to see bubbles and discolouration. More information about what you can expect is available  here. 

There are around 230 properties in Point Hill and southern Rye including at Rock Channel Quay that have also been impacted that aren't being supplied by tankers, we are continuing to work to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We will continue to provide deliveries of bottled water in the meantime.

Two bottled water stations have opened this morning.

 

They are at the below locations:

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB.
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to all residents in affected areas who have no water. If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.

Due to the number of homes being fed by tankers, there may be interruptions to water supply as tankers change over. We have increased the number of tankers we're using to minimise this risk. 

We’re sorry for the continued disruption and distress this is causing. Please keep an eye on our website and social channels for the latest updates.

UPDATE 29 September 8pm

We’re sorry that customers in Point Hill, Camber, Rye and Winchelsea continue to experience no water supply or low pressure.

Around 910 properties in areas of Rye are still having issues with low pressure or no water.  We will also deliver bottled water to all customers in the postcodes listed below today and tomorrow. The situation should start to improve overnight with supply coming back to this area as we have additional tankers injecting water into the network from midnight onwards. 

Postcodes impacted – TN317A, TN317D, TN317E, TN317H, TN317J, TN317L, TN317N, TN317P.

We are aware of areas of Point Hill and southern Rye including at Rock Channel Quay that have also been impacted that aren't being supplied by tankers, we are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We continue to provide deliveries of bottled water in the meantime.

For customers in Winchelsea, Camber and Rye Harbour the situation has improved and customers should see a more stable supply although there may be periods of low pressure for those being fed by tankers at Rye and Camber.

Two bottled water stations are open until 9pm and will reopen again tomorrow morning at 8am.

They are at the below locations:

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB.
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to all residents in affected areas who have no water. If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.

We’re sorry for the continued disruption and distress this is causing. We are doing everything we can to keep customers in supply and will be working on a fix 24/7 until we have resolved the issue.  

Please keep an eye on our website and social channels for the latest updates.

UPDATE 29 September 6.20pm

Again, we’re sorry to customers in East Sussex that are still affected by the water supply issues we’re having in the Rye area. 

We’ve managed to get supplies restored to around 3,800 properties of the 4,700 affected. Customers may still experience some low pressure as water flows back into the network; this is because tankers are still being used to keep up with demand while we fix the leak on our main.  

We apologise to customers in the Point Hill area who are still without water or experiencing intermittent supply. We needed to flush the mains to protect water quality before we could bring in tankered supplies, which has caused the delay. Our teams will work into this evening and expect supplies to be fully restored overnight. 

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to customers who have no water. If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels.  

We have set up two bottled water stations at for those customers able to travel:  

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB. 
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW 

They will be open until 9pm this evening, and reopen at 8am Saturday morning. 

We’re sorry for the continued disruption and distress this is causing. We are doing everything we can to keep customers in supply and will be working on a fix 24/7 until we have fixed the issue.  

Please keep an eye on our website and social channels for the latest updates. 

UPDATE 29 September 12.50pm

We’re sorry that customers in Winchelsea, Camber, Point Hill and Rye are still affected by water supply issues today.  

Although customers in Winchelsea, Rye Harbour and the majority of Camber should now be back in supply, some customers in Rye centre and small areas of Camber may still be experiencing intermittent supplies.  

We’re boosting our tankering operation in the area so this should start to stabilise from 12pm onwards.  

Customers in Point Hill that still have no water or intermittent supplies, we are putting in place a different tankering plan which we expect will restore supplies today.   

Two bottled water stations at the following locations have now reopened this morning they are located at:  

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB. 
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW 

They will be open until 9pm this evening.  

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to all residents in affected areas who have no water. If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels. 

UPDATE 29 September 9am

We’re sorry that customers in Winchelsea, Camber, Point Hill and Rye are still affected by water supply issues today.

Thanks to the work last night, customers in Winchelsea and Rye should have a more stable supply this morning.

We’re sorry to report, customers in Camber are still without water or have low pressure this morning. This is due to issues with our tankering operation. We expect this to be resolved by midday.  

Additionally, customers in Point Hill currently have no water. We’re undertaking investigations into why this is, and we expect this to be resolved by midday.  

Two bottled water stations at the following locations have now reopened this morning. They are located at: 

• Western Car Park, New Lydd Road, Camber, TN31 7RB.
• Rye Station, TN31 7AW

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to all residents in affected areas who have no water.  If you, or anyone you know, need to be prioritised and added to our register, please call 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels. 

We’re sorry for the continued disruption and distress this is causing, we will provide a further update about this before 12noon. 

Update 28 September 5.40pm

We are sorry to customers in the Rye and Camber areas of East Sussex who continue to experience intermittent water supply issues. 

Efforts made to improve the pressure and supply of water are beginning to take effect. 

Following a leak near our Udimore reservoir last Friday, customers in the area have experienced intermittent problems with their water supply since.  

Thanks to an extensive tanker operation and moving water around our network, we are now improving the resilience of the local pipes. 

This means that about 600 Winchelsea properties should already be experiencing a return to normal service, while about 1500 customers in Rye Harbour and Point Hill should return to normal service by around 8pm this evening. These areas are being supported once more by the reservoir. 

For some 950 customers in Camber and 1400 in Rye, supplies should stablise overnight thanks to an improved programme of tankers. 

Specialist teams will continue efforts to fix the burst over the coming days but we hope that these steps will provide a stable water supply in the meantime.  

We are continuing to deliver bottled water to customers in Camber and Rye, including those on our Priority Services Register.   

We have set up a bottled water station at Rye Train Station Car Park, Rye, TN31 7AW and this will remain open until 9pm. We are exploring opening a second one and will update the website if this happens. We’ll keep you updated via our social media and website so please check there for the latest details. 

If you or anyone you know needs to be prioritised and added to our register, please call: 0800 027 0800 from 9am–5pm, Monday to Friday or call our emergency line, 24/7 on 0330 303 0368. You can also contact us via our social media channels. 

We would like to apologise again if you have experienced less pressure than usual or experienced no water at all. 

UPDATE 28 September 2pm

On Friday 22nd September we identified an unknown leak in the area of our Udimore reservoir that feeds Camber and Rye, to the east of Hastings.

This area is rural so locating the leak has been incredibly complicated. After an extensive search we found a burst on the afternoon of Sunday 24th September, off Udimore Reservoir. In searching for leak, we isolated some zones for a period of hours and re-established pressure and so some customers would have experienced low or no pressure for a number of hours, over the weekend, due to the investigation.

We could not repair the pipe without significant rezoning of our network (as this pipe supplies around 80% of the water needed in the area) . This work involved installing two new valves to isolate the burst site, and from Tuesday night we have locked in zones which are being fed from tankers only, which has resulted in more prolonged periods of low and no pressure. We’d like to apologise if you have experienced less pressure than usual or experienced no water at all.

To reduce customer impact, we immediately brought in a fleet of 16 tankers, which have been injecting water into the network to keep customers in supply since Saturday. We also started bottled water deliveries to customers on our priority services register at the weekend, and expanded this to reach more customers.

Until Wednesday morning these tankers had been keeping the majority of customers in the area in supply – although they may have noticed a drop in pressure or had moments of intermittent supply as these tankers changed over. This has mainly happened during periods of peak demand.

We would like to apologise if you have experienced less pressure than usual or experienced no water at all.

On Wednesday we also we attempted to reconnect to the reservoir, but this has taken a lot longer than planned due to the need to meet certain criteria, such as water quality, which is paramount. This had complicated the tankering process, which is why customers may have noticed a change since Saturday.

A revised plan is now in place to recharge the system, and we will continue to support this with tankers, until a permanent fix can be made to the burst main. This is due to be completed by the end of the weekend.

Customers in the TN31 7 and TN36 which are Winchelsea Beach, Rye Harbour and Point Hill area will see more resilient supplies returned by this evening, as supplies are returned from the reservoir. If something changes this timeline, we’ll let you know as soon as we can.

Customers in Camber and Rye will be supplied by tankers until we can make the permanent fix, however, they should see an improvement as we divert tankers from Winchelsea Beach, Rye Hardbour and Point Hill to support you.