The properties have been without water for more than 48 hours as residents receive bottled water delivered to their door. Finn Macdiarmid reports.
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00:00It's now been more than 30 hours since up to 1,000 homes in Strewden, Rochester have
00:05been without running water and as the day goes on, many residents are worried they won't
00:10have water in time for their Christmas celebrations.
00:13It's Christmas Eve. Today families should be looking forward to opening their presents
00:17tomorrow, but many families are looking to tomorrow with worry. That's because here on
00:22Bryant Road they don't have any running water. Southern Water have come down and are searching
00:27street by street for the burst pipe, but until then, the street is without the use
00:32of their taps. Southern Water have been handing out bottled water for them to use for their
00:37essentials, brushing their teeth and obviously drinking, but many are worried that this won't
00:42be solved.
00:43Residents of areas like Bryant Road in Strewden have been getting deliveries of bottled water
00:47from Southern Water throughout the day.
00:49We just sort of like neighbourly people do, give each other bottles of water and in the
00:55evening, 11 o'clock last night, they turned up with water for this road, but they were
01:00running out quite frequently.
01:02And do you know who's supplying the water?
01:05I don't know. I think it's coming from Southern Water themselves. Well, they've arranged it.
01:10I mean, they're not coming in Southern Water trucks as you can see, but they're all sort
01:15of, all the neighbours are pulling together here at the moment, so it's all going quite
01:19well.
01:20But other residents said they were worried as they had vulnerable family members making
01:23the situation more difficult.
01:25One councillor believed the cause could be linked to gasworks in the area several months
01:29ago.
01:30People are frustrated and especially the particular people who have been emailing me, were also
01:36emailing me about the strategic gas networks, about the way they were going through the
01:41area. This is back in the summer.
01:43When a utility goes through the area, like the gas company, it does undoubtedly disturb
01:48the ground and that's undoubtedly the knock-on effect this time is that Southern Water now
01:53found there's a crack in their pipe. So yes, the local residents are frustrated.
01:58A spokesman for Southern Water said we're sorry to customers in Strood who are without
02:03water or experiencing low pressure this morning. Our teams have been working through the night
02:07to find and fix the burst main, which is causing the issue.
02:10As Southern Water continue their efforts to find the source of the burst pipe, they've
02:14also started a water station which will be open until 10pm tonight and have been using
02:18tankers to pump water directly into the network.
02:21Many in the town will hope that come Christmas morning there will be presents under the tree
02:25and water in the taps.
02:27Finn McDermid for CAME TV in Strood.