UPDATE: '˜Serious burst' water main fixed

The incident at around 11.30pm yesterday left customers temporarily without water in Barcombe, Ditchling, Plumpton and Chailey, and today led to the closure of two schools.

Downlands Community School in Hassocks closed for all of its lessons, apart from its GCSE exams, said a spokesman from the school.

A spokesman for South East Water said bottled water stations were set up and deliveries made to vulnerable customers with repair crews working throughout the day to fix ‘extensive damage’ to a 15-inch diameter water pipe.

Specialist technicians worked quickly to change the flow of water around the network of underground pipes to restore water supplies to as many homes as possible, the spokesman added.

Steve Andrews, incident manager at South East Water, said: “Our technicians worked extremely hard to re-route our water network quickly to make sure we restored water supplies to our customers as quickly as possible.

“This was done carefully to protect the water mains system against further bursts by releasing the water into the network slowly and in a controlled manner.

“The repair has now been completed and supplies are now returning to properties.

“I would like thank all of our customers affected by loss of water or low pressure for their patience and co-operation while the work to fix the burst water pipe took place and we are sorry for any disruption caused.”

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