Repairs continue after water restored to homes

6 hours ago

Patrick BarlowSouth East

The leak flooded a playing field near the Island Barn Reservoir in East Molesey

PA Media An aerial shot of a reservoir, with playing fields in the foreground. Part of the playing field is flooded and submerged in water. — The leak flooded a playing field near the Island Barn Reservoir in East Molesey

Repair work is continuing on a large burst water main near a Surrey reservoir which affected supplies to as many as 15,000 properties.

Thames Water said running water should now be restored to properties affected by the burst in East Molesey on Monday, which affected homes in Surrey and parts of south London.

The water company said it was continuing to reroute water to keep taps on during the repairs, and a bottled water station would be open at Sandown Park Racecourse until 21:00 BST.

Schools were forced to close on Monday in parts of Thames Ditton as a result of the water supply issues.

At 14:45 BST, a Thames Water spokesperson said: "We have managed to get rid of the flooding at the burst site and isolated the broken pipe, but are still working to ensure the site is safe of any voids or structural issues prior to any further work being carried out.

"To help maintain supplies for customers during the repair, tankers remain in place to pump additional water into the network, with additional resources on standby if needed.

"However, some customers may continue to experience low water pressure while work is ongoing."

Thames Water engineers have been fixing a burst water main near the Island Barn Reservoir in East Molesey since Monday

PA Media An aerial image of a number of vans parked in a car park. The ground in the car park is gravel and surrounded by trees and shrubs. — Thames Water engineers have been fixing a burst water main near the Island Barn Reservoir in East Molesey since Monday

Issues were first reported at 05:15 BST on Monday, with the burst main flooding a playing field near the Island Barn Reservoir.

Thames Water previously said the main would "likely take some time to fix".

Monica Harding, MP for Esher and Walton, told BBC Radio Surrey on Tuesday that eight schools in the constituency had been forced to close as a result of the issue.

She added: "It had a profound effect on our community. Some quite vulnerable people didn't have water coming out of their taps.

"It was a bit of a disaster really. There are some fundamental questions to answer."

The water company said it had invested £2.7bn in its infrastructure in 2025-26 and planned to increase this to £4bn by 2030.

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