Thousands of people remain without water two days after pipe burst

Thousands of people today remain without water, two days after a reservoir pipe burst in North Lincolnshire.

On Friday morning, Anglian Water said both pipes have now been fixed, but around 1,800 properties in Kirton Lindsey, near Scunthorpe, are still without water. The company are operating a bottled water hub at Scunthorpe United Football Club, which reportedly had queues of up to two hours on Thursday night, and have also said they are delivering bottled water to vulnerable customers.

In a statement issued shortly after 8am on Friday, an Anglian Water spokesperson said: "The two burst pipes are now fixed and the Stonewall Reservoir is recharging. By last night, around 3,000 customers were off water and that’s now reduced to around 1,800 customers in the Kirton Lindsey area.

"We are working as quickly as possible to get the pumps restarted and get those customers back on. Since last night we have been delivering bottled water to those customers still off water and are working hard to get to everyone as quickly as possible."

It comes a day after Anglian Water said 36,000 customers in Scunthorpe and the surrounding area had been impacted after the burst pipes stopped water flowing into the local storage reservoir. They first became aware of a burst water pipe that feeds the Stonewall Reservoir and supplies part of the Scunthorpe area on Wednesday.

Then, while working on the repair overnight, a second water pipe burst, leading to the loss of water supply to some customers in the Scunthorpe area in the early hours of the morning on Thursday.

A company spokesperson today added: “We're really sorry that some customers in Scunthorpe have experienced low water pressure, or no water at all. Our teams have worked extremely hard to get water supplies back to normal as quickly as possible. We'd like to thank our customers in the Scunthorpe area for bearing with us while we get things back to normal.”

The issue has led to schools and some businesses, including pubs, being temporarily closed. Leader of North Lincolnshire Council Rob Waltham said: "Residents are quite rightly angry. They woke up, they wanted to get about their day.

"When you close a school that means parents are inconvenienced, grandparents are drafted in to try and look after children. It's this short notice stuff that people get very upset about and quite understandably."

As a result of the incident, Waltham added he has demanded an urgent meeting with the water company's bosses to discuss the area's infrastructure and preventative work to ensure "this is not going to be a regular occurrence".