Villagers in East Cambridgeshire could face ‘intermittent’ water supplies all weekend amid scorching heat - while main leak ran overnight

Villagers in the Haddenham area have been warned their water supply may continue to be “intermittent” all weekend amid the scorching temperatures - while in nearby Wilburton, there was anger that a mains leak ran all night while their taps ran dry.

The water supply was cut off to households in Haddenham and the surrounding area on Thursday following a mains leak. It was restored on Friday morning, but went off again for some.

Anglian Water has warned “intermittent water supplied or low pressure” could last all weekend in the area.

Meanwhile, in Wilburton, another mains leak was running for more than 18 hours.

Villagers reported the leaking main to Anglian Water on Thursday evening, but it took until nearly 1pm on Friday to fix it. Supplies were restored after some households experienced about 30 hours without water as temperatures soared into the 30s.

One resident tweeted: “It was reported 6pm last night by many residents and also phoned in again this morning. It was left running all through the night, hundreds of litres of water gone. @anglianwater team turned up just before 9am, I guess not an urgent case???”

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “Our teams have repaired a burst water main on Clarks Lane, Wilburton, today. Our emergency repairs teams have been finding and fixing leaks at all hours, and this leak was fully fixed before 1pm today.

“We’d like to thank our customers for reporting leaks when they find them, especially during this period of high demand due to the hot weather.”

Anglian Water apologised to villagers in Haddenham area and said free bottled water was available at The Arkenstall Village Centre at 7 Station Road, Haddenham, CB6 3XD.

A spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry that customers in Haddenham and the surrounding area may still be experiencing very low water pressure or no water at times. A large water main into the area burst and our teams worked throughout the early hours of Thursday morning to fix it.

“While the main was fixed and the mains systems was reconnected, the water tower that supplies the main is taking longer than expected to recover. This is causing continued issues with supply and very low water pressures, particularly during peak times when everyone is trying to draw more water out of their taps at the same time.

“To support the network while the water tower recovers, we’re using a fleet of tankers and moving water from other areas until the main water supply recovers back to normal.

“We’ve also set up a bottled water hub at Arkenstall Village Centre where customers can collect free water supplies. The hub will be open today and over the weekend from 7am-10pm. We have plenty to go round so encourage customers to avoid queuing in this very hot weather. Again, we’re really sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and we’d like to thank customers for their patience.”

And in a status update, the company warned: “The water tower that supplies the water main will take some time to recover. This means you may continue to experience intermittent water supplies or low pressure over the weekend, particularly at peak times.

“We’ve deployed our tanker fleet and are moving water from other parts of the network to help get your supplies back to normal.”

The interruption to supplies comes on the day that Cambridgeshire and the East of England were officially placed in drought status by the National Drought Group.

It could mean additional measures are taken by water companies or the Environment Agency to protect water supplies, such as imposing hosepipe bans.

Anglian Water and Cambridge Water have come under fire for not following in the footsteps of four other water companies and banning hosepipe use to prevent excessive use of water.

Meanwhile, Cambridge Water customers in Linton and Willingham had interrupted supplies yesterday (Thursday).