A water supply outage left families without any running water for both drinking and washing for the entire weekend.
Areas of the Wirral, Prenton, Higher Bebington and Birkenhead were left dry after a suppliers United Utilities had a pipe burst at around 8pm on Saturday night and the problem persisted until 7:30AM on Monday.
The company explained the position to customers on Sunday morning in a statement which read: “Just to let you know that we’re still working really hard to return your water supply to normal as quickly as possible.
“The problem was caused by a burst pipe within the local treatment works which provides the water for the area.
“We have also deployed our fleet of large ‘Water on Wheels’ tankers in the area to try and get water to as many people as possible whilst we work on fixing the problem.”
The issue became so prevalent that the company set up three pick-up locations at which large trucks filled with pallets of bottled water. The bottles were handed out to people in need and the streets were lined with large tankers attempting to pump water manually back into the system.
Twitter: Ethan Jukes-Mcnee
A queue forms in the rain outside Sainsbury’s on Woodchurch Road after the water outage in Prenton. pic.twitter.com/M3Dtnv6jnv
— Ethan Jukes-Mcnee (@EthanJukesMcnee) November 4, 2019
Businesses were affected as pubs around Oxton had been forced to close their doors due to the shortage. The Shrewsbury Arms, The Caernarvon Castle and The Oxton Bar and Kitchen all had to shut early.
Emily Pennington, a woman working at The Shrew told JMU Journalism: “The whole of Oxton is like a ghost town.”
Charlotte Wright told JMU Journalism as she waited for bottled water: “You would be better off paying for a local gym membership and running down there for a shower than standing in this queue.”
Prenton resident Laura Eastwood posted on Facebook: “United Utilities can I say your workmen have been amazing today. I have counted at least five trucks coming backwards and forwards in the past hour alone. These trucks have been coming and going all day and night thanks so much you’re working tirelessly to get things back working again.”