to wonder why this hasnt made the news given we are in a pandemic.

[HeIenaDove]

Thames Water customers without water in East London. Supermarkets quickly selling out of bottled water.

Over to you Sadiq Boris Matt Hancock. Im sure we will see a big statement about this from them given their concern for public health.

twitter.com/ecJulie/status/1313611112764637185?s=20

@Hellomoonstar

Did Thames water distribute any bottled water? They didn’t give us any and someone was home all day. Our corner shop ran out off water and dh had to drive few mile to get some. It is back on again.

Ds2 was on his last day of self isolation (got an email to isolate only him) and we have a 5month baby (luckily I ebf so no panic over here not being able to make formula). Yet no one offered us water from Thames water and the phone line just rang.

Luckily it is back on now.

It is a public health issue. How would schools and business open, if they don’t have water for people to wash their hands or flush toilets? Water is not only for drinking.

They wouldn’t for a day. We had the same thing happen about 18 months ago. Got a text message to say to not go to work and one of the local schools was closed.

Not a big deal. Sometimes stuff breaks and they won’t have done it on purpose.

Personally I would grab a bit of perspective and be grateful to the people who worked their arses off to get it back online ASAP.

Just had this exact scenario where I live tonight
Water off Thames water didn’t tell the residents but asked people to come and Collect water - no provision at all for housebound people
Que gridlock in my area for hours- much complaining on sm

Not London either

@Heatherjayne1972

Just had this exact scenario where I live tonight Water off Thames water didn’t tell the residents but asked people to come and Collect water - no provision at all for housebound people Que gridlock in my area for hours- much complaining on sm Not London either

Happens somewhere in Britain pretty much everyday. No big deal. That’s life

There's been a lot of humour on SM amongst East Londoners tonight. I've been sent a mock up of an EBay listing selling a bottle of water for £100, a charity poster asking for donations for a water well for East London etc. People have just shrugged and got on with it. It's back on now.

This is abit drama about nothing!
It has happened on and off for the past forty years that I know of!

Certainly no need to make a big deal, it will be sorted out in the next few hours I am sure. Jeez.

I had a power cut for 12 hours, summon the cavalry!! Call the Prime Minister and tell him about my freezer food is slowly thawing out

Please can we at least try and get a grip. Is there not enough bad news for you already without the need to make it up?

Because its a public health issue. Its not just about masks, Everything else has to come into play too

He isn't going to be able to turn it back on or coordinate distributing water, and he isn't going to exactly address the nation for something that happens regularly outside of London.

This happens all the time. We lost water all afternoon and overnight a couple of weeks ago. Once we lost water for 8 flipping days when we lived elsewhere in the uk. It's hardly something unique to Londoners and they are very lucky if it's the first time it's happened there (which it probably isn't)! Not newsworthy at all.

This is listed on the sky newsfeed online.

It's hardly unusual, or headline news is it?

Accidents happen. This happens all the time. It is majorly inconvenient to those affected. It is now fixed.

@downwithcovid
It’s a huge deal. We still have no water.

So vulnerable people are just left - nice

Shops here have no water as everyone was panicking last night
And also the traffic is terrible here on a normal day. We have an awful one way system - just takes one seemingly small thing and the roads are gridlocked 10 min journey taking 2.5 hours For eg

It's everything to do with politicians. If they hadn't privatised the fucking water companies we could have had some say over these fuck ups.

Too true. As with the inefficient privatised supply chains delaying the purchase of PPE and other vital supplies in the NHS.

Utilities are meant to be state-owned so that (a) they’re run for the benefit of the users, not the share-holders, and (b) we have some control over them.

Well yes @Heatherjayne1972, but the water company should be doing something about it, for once it's not the government. The fact people were panic buying water suggests it doesn't happen regularly there, it happens a lot here. Never makes the news, probably because it's not London.

Its a business outage,that they’re addressing by giving out bottled water
It’s not directly public health issue. In absence of hot water use hand gel

the media widely reporting things like this just fuel idiotic panic, hence the panic buying earlier this year. suddenly people become outraged, its ridiculous and why don't people stop panic buying, whilst buying an extra packet of pasta, loo roll and beans.

no its not good but selfish, hysterical claims akin to a national disaster just make things worse.

a sad reflection on society

So could you list Matt Hancock's options for fixing this as it seems it is his responsibility...............

@StatisticalSense

This is unfortunately nothing particularly unusual and also nothing to do with politicians on any side or remotely newsworthy outside of the areas affected. Thames Water as a private company should be providing access to sufficient bottled water for drinking for these residents as per the protocols for unplanned water outages which have been in place for many a year.

The water supply in private hands is worrying on so many levels, to try and argue that it's nothing to do with government is absolutely terrifying. Of course the fact that the population has insufficient water is a government problem.

I'm not sure that privatisation makes much difference in this scenario because it's not privatised where I am and it still goes off without warning.

If it was in government hands not sure how they could magically fix a pipe, or whatever the issues are any quicker. Here when the water is off, someone is sent within 30 minutes, but some fixes take longer. Not helped by the fact people seem to content the closing of roads so routine maintenance can be done which helps the network stay in good shape.

That’s not unusual and not really national news. In my local area, there’s been water problems before, and bottled water has been distributed.

We have had this several times in a rural area and no offer of water from anywhere. I have a stock in the garage that I gave to the people I care for so they can wash and have a cup of tea.

Over to you Sadiq Boris Matt Hancock

Do they work for Thames Water?

Water has issues regularly, it's not national news. People affected will be contacted and water distributed as required. Happened a few weeks ago to me

It was on the London news last night just after 10:30.
We had a water outage at the peak of the first wave. It didn't make the news but we're still here...

"That’s not unusual and not really national news. In my local area, there’s been water problems before, and bottled water has been distributed."

How have we got into the situation where this is not news and not unusual? I can remember when outages were all over the news, and reporters filmed queues of people being given water. It was most certainly unusual then!

It wouldn’t be news if it wasn’t in London. We probably wouldn’t get bottled water either!

It is on Twitter and in the news.