Water Supply Issue - Isle of Wight

We’re pleased to update that in the early hours of the morning we completed the repair to a burst pipe on the Isle of Wight affecting customers in Shanklin, Wroxall, Newchurch, Alverstone and Rookley. Most customers will already have had water restored overnight, and any remaining properties are expected to be back in supply later this morning.  

As a precautionary measure two bottled water stations have been open since 8am this morning:  

• Morrisons, Newport Rd, Sandown PO36 9PA 
• Co-Op, Landguard Road, Shanklin, PO37 7JR. Please note that this site is for pedestrian traffic only. 

We continued to deliver bottled water throughout the night to all 3000 customers on our Priority Services Register in the area. We will be doing a second delivery to these customers this morning. If you’re a vulnerable customer or require water for a medical condition, call 0330 303 0368, where a member of our team will be happy to help.  

Discoloured water from your taps is normal after a supply interruption such as the one we’ve seen recently. This is usually temporary and disappears once the network settles.

If the water is cloudy and white, try leaving it in a glass for a few minutes to see if it clears. This will be air trapped in the water as the pipes refilled.

If the water has a brown or black colour, run your tap for a few minutes and it should clear. If this doesn't work, turn the tap off, wait 20 minutes, and try again. It’s fine to use your water as normal when your water runs clear.

You can also find out more information here - My water looks unusual

We’ll continue to keep our website and social media updated. 

We’re sorry for the problems this has caused and thank customers for their patience while we fix the burst.  

We have almost completed excavation around the burst water main and will continue with the repair overnight. While the section of the network with the burst main is isolated, we have taken water from other parts of the network, to start refilling the reservoir. This means we have been able to slowly start reintroducing water back into the mains network and recharging the system.  

To make sure that we don't cause any further issues, we will be reintroducing water back into the network slowly, but we anticipate that all affected properties will see their water return overnight.  

We have now opened two bottled water stations at the following locations:  

1. Amazon World Zoo - Watery Lane, Newchurch, Sandown, PO36 0LX 

2. Morrisons Car Park - Newport Rd, Sandown, PO36 9PA 

These will remain open until 11pm this evening. As a precaution they will reopen tomorrow morning at 8am.  

We have been delivering bottled water throughout the afternoon and into the evening to customers on our Priority Services Register, and will continue to do this throughout the night. If you are a vulnerable customer or require water for a medical condition, please call 0330 303 0368, where a member of our team will be happy to help. 

We'll be keeping our website and social media updated throughout the evening.  

We're sorry for the problems this has caused, thank you for your patience while we resolve these problems. 

This will be the last update you receive this evening. We will provide another update at 9am tomorrow.   

Our team have made great progress on fixing the burst pipe near Blackwater, which is currently affecting customers water supply in Shanklin, Wroxall, Newchurch, Alverstone and Rookley. The repairs are ongoing and we're doing all we can to bring customers back into supply as safely and quickly as possible.

Bottled water deliveries have started to those on our Priority Services Register and we will continue these, making sure deliveries are made to everyone who is on the register. If you are a vulnerable customer or require water for a medical condition, please call 0330 303 0368, where a member of our team will be happy to help.

We have now opened our first bottled water station for customers on the Isle of Wight who currently have no water supply.

Location: Amazon World Zoo - Watery Lane, Newchurch, Sandown, PO36 0LX

Opening times: The station will be open until 11pm this evening.

We are in the process of setting up a second bottled water station and will share the details once mobilised. 

We'll be keeping our website and social media updated throughout the evening. 

We’re sorry customers in the Shanklin, Wroxhall, Newchurch, Alverstone, and Rookley areas of the Isle of Wight are still without water or experiencing low pressure this afternoon. 

Our teams are working hard to repair a major burst on a strategic trunk main in Blackwater, near the River Medina, which has impacted our Cooks Castle reservoir.  

This incident has affected up to 10,000 properties, but because our tankers are injecting water directly into the network, we are currently restoring supply to around half of those addresses. 

This is a complex repair, so restoring supply to the remaining properties could take some time, late into this evening.

In the meantime, we are continuing to deliver bottled water to our vulnerable customers on our Priority Services Register.  Our helpline number for vulnerable customers needing access to bottled water as a priority, or for other customer queries relating to the supply interruption, is 0330 303 0368.    

We are also setting up bottled water stations for wider customers. We will announce details of where they are when they are set up.  

Our next update about this will be after 6pm.