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Thousands of households in Hastings could face a Christmas with no water after a mains pipe burst.<\/p>\n
Southern Water has warned that households may begin losing water from the evening of Christmas Eve as the system is rapidly losing supply.<\/p>\n
Emergency bottled water deliveries were being dispatched by the company to vulnerable households from Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Customers have been told not to use more water than usual, and asked not to stockpile it as this could \u201cmake the situation worse\u201d.<\/p>\n Southern Water said: \u201cDepending on progress in completing the repair, we forecast that as a worst case, customers could start losing supply tomorrow evening (Wednesday 24 December).\u201d<\/p>\n The burst mains pipe, in a woodland north of Hastings, was found on Tuesday morning and the company has been racing against the clock to fix it before supplies cut out over Christmas.<\/p>\n This is not the first time burst pipes have caused an outage in the area. Hastings residents were left without water for four days in May 2024 after a pipe, which was flagged for replacement in 2007 but never fixed, burst. Multiple pipes in the Hastings area have previously been listed by the company as \u201caged assets prone to failure\u201d.<\/p>\n Helena Dollimore, Labour MP for Hastings, Rye and the Villages, said: \u201cI\u2019m deeply frustrated that Hastings is once again paying the price for Southern Water\u2019s failures. A burst pipe has left our town with a limited water supply and this means there could be an outage tomorrow. My immediate priority is protecting residents, particularly the most vulnerable, and supporting local businesses at this critical time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve pressed Southern Water to act fast to open as many water stations as possible, deliver directly to those on the priority services list, and provide extra water to pubs, restaurants and hotels. I will be holding Southern Water to account and asking the questions that need to be asked, but right now my focus is on ensuring everyone has access to the water they need and limiting the impact of this.\u201d<\/p>\n