UPDATED: Ringwood residents without water due to burst main (From Thisisdorset)

UPDATED: Ringwood residents without water due to burst main

8:05am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in Latest

THOUSANDS of people in Ringwood were without water this morning due to a burst pipe.

Sembcorp Bournemouth Water said the pipe burst around 5.15am in Spittlefields, Ringwood, leaving around 3,500 homes without water or suffering low pressure.

Engineers were quickly on the scene and houses had their supply restored by 9am.

 

@bournemouthecho floods in spittlefields ringwood .. Burst pipes twitter.com/Craig_Keith/st…

— Craig_Keith (@Craig_Keith) February 12, 2013

 

Bob Taylor, director of operations at Sembcorp Bournemouth Water said “quite a lot” of water was lost from the pipe.

“There was localised flooding around Spittlefields at the back of properties", he said.

"The pipe burst on a public footpath and people would have suffered low pressure or lost their water supply initially.

“We were on the case very, very quickly - we can tell almost straight away when this happens.

“Supplies were restored to homes in around one-and-a-half hours from a different location.

“I went there myself this morning and there is minimal damage to property but still a bit of water lying on the road draining away.

“There are also a number of cars with minimal damage – around 12 – although we do not know the exact extent at this time.”

Mr Taylor said there was around eight or nine inches of water in the worst affected places.

“We have got a crew on site to repair the pipe. We have restored all the water supplies and we are now concentrating on the clean-up.

“We will be helping with all the roads and any gardens and any repairs needed to cars or property.

“Hopefully the inconvenience was relatively minor and we are sorry to our customers for any problems.

“I would say the inside of property damage is minimal – one or two perhaps.

“We know someone opened their back door and some water came in and there were about 12 cars with some damp issues that need to be dried out.

“We will be looking at the whole system to try and avoid problems like this in the future.”