Press Association: Water supplies restored after burst main disrupted schools and left thousands without service

The Press Association reported that water supplies were restored after a large burst main in West Molesey, Surrey, forced some schools and nurseries to close and left thousands of properties without service.

Thames Water said engineers isolated the broken pipe on Monday afternoon. The company initially said up to 15,000 properties had been affected, later revising the figure to 6,000. Customers in parts of Surrey and south London were impacted, including areas covered by postcodes CR4, KT1, KT10, KT12, KT2, KT3, KT5, KT6, KT7, KT8, SM4, SW16, SW17, SW18, SW19, SW20, TW10 and TW16.

Esher Sixth Form College in Thames Ditton said it was closed on Monday, September 28, because of a major water outage affecting the KT10 area and its campus. The Holy Cross School in New Malden also said it had closed because of a local water supply issue. Thames Ditton Infant School and Long Ditton Infant and Nursery School said they were shut for the day as well.

Monica Harding, MP for Esher and Walton, said on X that water had been leaking at a rate of 750 litres a second at about 6.30am, according to her understanding. She called for an urgent response and said the cause of the incident should be established once supplies had been restored.

Paul Kohler, MP for Wimbledon, said he had contacted Thames Water after reports of an outage across Wimbledon, New Malden, Raynes Park and Morden. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey described the disruption as “yet another example” of the company failing its customers.

Thames Water said: “We have isolated the burst main in Molesey and all customers should see their water supply restored shortly if it has not been already, although they may experience some low pressure.” The company apologised for the outage and said a bottled-water station would be opened for customers who needed it, while engineers continued work on a permanent repair.

Some residents posted on X that they had woken up without running water. A straw poll conducted at the entrance to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool recorded 99 of 100 votes in favour of public ownership of Thames Water, according to the Press Association.