SES water outage Sutton and Surrey: thousands left without water and queue for bottles a week before Christmas

Despite efforts to restore supply, many households remain without water and now fear Christmas will be ruined as they are unable to flush toilets, cook or wash hands just a week before the festive break.

Since the ‘complex fault’ was first reported at the Cheam Water Treatment Works on Monday evening (December 16), SES Water has installed three temporary water bottle collection points to support the affected households. Yet many feel the location of these collection points has not helped the situation, with one calling it ‘shambolic’.

Two bottled water stations opened on Tuesday morning at Bourne Hall in Ewell and in Epsom’s Upper High Street car park. A third station was later opened in Carshalton’s Westcroft Leisure Centre.

Residents can pick up two packs – six large bottles in each pack – per household. The stations, manned by SES staff, also allow residents to collect for multiple households.

However, residents have questioned why no response station has been opened in the Cheam area, where the outage was first reported and where many residents still do not have access to water. Sutton Civic Centre and library are still understood to be without water, so there has been no handwashing facilities or flushing toilets.

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The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that SES had made plans to set up a water bottle station in Cheam’s Nonsuch Park on Monday. However, this plan was reportedly scrapped due to a lack of resources, meaning Cheam residents must travel to Ewell or Carshalton to access the water bottles.

This has led many to question how residents without access to cars can get to the stations. North Cheam resident Ram Gidoomal told the LDRS: “We have no car, so how do we access Bourne Hall from North Cheam and carry back bottles from such a difficult-to-access site by public transport?”

No Cheam water station has been announced at the time of writing. However, SES told the LDRS it is currently investigating other locations for bottled water stations, and these include in Cheam.

During a visit to the Westcroft Leisure Centre station, the LDRS spoke to one resident carrying water back for his household. Cheam resident Tony said: “It’s massive but not too bad because it was overnight, but the kids have all been sent home from school.” He added: “I’ve lived here since 2000, and there’s been nothing like this before.”

Several schools in the Sutton area, including Nonsuch High School, Cheam Fields Primary, and Busy Bees Nursery, were closed to students on Tuesday. It is unclear whether the affected schools will reopen on Wednesday, and the council advises residents to check with their schools for updates.

SES Water said it is working closely with St Helier Hospital after it experienced water outage issues, as well as Cheyham Park care home in Cheam, which has also been badly affected.

SES is working in a fix but has not given a timescale for the return of normal water supplies. This uncertainty has attracted criticism from many in Sutton and neighbouring Surrey.

One resident, Victoria Rodger, told the LDRS: “We have no water at all, in SM3, and have not done for around 24 hours now. We have two young children who are very worried about it, and SES has given no communication other than to say they’re working to resolve it, and no estimation has been given as to when.

“We cannot make any plans, do we need to hassle family members and travel for showers/cooking etc or will it be back on soon enough and we can all make do?”

Another resident, who did not want to be named,said: “This has come at the worst possible time. We already pay so much in bills, the least they can tell us is when it will all go back to normal.”

Since last night’s outage, Sutton and Cheam MP Luke Taylor has been working with SES in their response. While he praised efforts to establish water stations, he was clear about his dissatisfaction with the situation.

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He told the LDRS: “Since the situation developed on Monday, I have been pushing SES to open bottle stations in Sutton and Cheam to make sure local residents can access them easily. I have been in constant dialogue with SES on behalf of local residents to make sure that they are moving as fast as possible to resolve the situation and get vital support to vulnerable people who are particularly impacted by the outage, particularly in care homes.

“The whole situation is simply not good enough. Local residents pay eye-watering amounts towards their water bills, and they deserve better service. People are rightly outraged and I will be pushing for SES to outline the steps they are taking to make sure this does not happen again.”

Following the outage, the government announced on Tuesday that water customers will receive significantly higher payments to compensate them for water company service failures. Residents facing issues like low water pressure could soon see compensation payouts of up to £250, a significant increase from the current £25. Meanwhile, those affected by internal flooding caused by sewers could receive payments of £2,000 or more, up from the existing £1,000 under the current guidelines.

In a statement, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, said: “Customers have too often been let down by water companies, with supply cut off, low water pressure and in some cases even contaminated tap water.

“We are clear that the public deserve better compensation when things go wrong, so I’m taking action to make sure that happens. This is another step forward in our plans to reform the water sector so it serves customers and the environment better.”

A spokesperson for SES Water said: “We sincerely apologise to all customers who are impacted by this disruption. Please rest assured that this is our absolute priority to restore supplies to these areas as fast as possible and we will be communicating updates via our social media channels and our website.”

SES has told residents that when water returns, it may be cloudy, white, or discoloured at first.