Battle of Hastings' burst highlights Covid incident response challenges

Amid the Covid 19 restrictions, Southern Water and its partners last week had to handle a major burst on a pipe, over seven times the size of the average street main, which supplies raw water to a water treatment site near Hastings.

Alongside the repair itself which was reported as completed promptly despite the complexity of the situation, the effort included delivering over 10,000 bottles of water to vulnerable customers, including 43 care homes, and dealing with follow up issues including discolouration and low pressure, and a small number of homes off supply for a more extended period.

The Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response Team for East Sussex HealthCare NHS Trust tweeted Southern Water to say: “Thanks, we're very grateful for the joined up response via @SussexRF, and the assistance you provided to us with tankers etc at the #Conquest #hospital. The joint working, situation reports and the on-site resources where all very helpful & greatly appreciated.”