Residents on Bermondsey’s Abbeyfield Estate haven’t had running water since Friday and are “enduring the most dreadful, miserable experience”, as Christmas plans are thrown into disarray.
Families are fleeing their homes, the old and vulnerable are washing with wipes, and residents report a “terrible smell” wafting from unflushed toilets.
Freezing weather is understood to have caused the malfunction. Southwark Council blames Thames Water’s “dreadful lack of urgency” for the prolonged outage.
Some blocks have now had water restored but Bradley House is still running dry.
Councillor Darren Merrill, cabinet member for council homes and homelessness, said: “Our tenants have had the most dreadful, miserable experience over the past few days, left cold, without running water and unable to use their bathrooms in the week before Christmas – I really feel for them, it is absolutely unacceptable.
“We faced a dreadful lack of urgency from Thames Water, despite repeated pleas to them to help our tenants. They have now accepted that they are responsible for the lack of water at Bradley House, as well as other blocks on the estate which have been resolved, and they are working to fix it.”
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Residents are furious that nobody from Southwark Council or Thames Water contacted them to say what was happening until Wednesday, December 21.
A council officer told the News that an IT problem had stopped emails being sent to residents.
Bradley House leaseholder Mario Bedoya, 59, said: “It’s unbelievable. We’re trying to get in touch with people from the council and they just put the phone down on us. When we call, Thames Water and the council point at each other! I worry about the people in here – the children and old people.”
Southwark Council has been distributing bottles of water to residents. “They’ve dropped some water off and that’s it. It’s not good enough is it? Can you tell us what’s going on?” said Mario.
He added: “There’s been a terrible smell because of no water running through the system.”
Head honchos at Southwark Council and Thames Water have been at loggerheads over who is at fault.
In a letter to residents delivered on Wednesday, the council wrote: “We have escalated this to the highest level in Thames Water, and are putting pressure on them hourly to sort this out.”
Resident Jackie, who cares for her 88-year-old mother on the estate, said she’d had to move her mum to Sutton because of the outage.
“We don’t what’s happening. We had nothing through the door for days. It’s crazy. I’ve had to take my mum to stay with my sister because she’s vulnerable. The lack of communication is disgusting. It’s appalling.
“What do you do with little bottles of water we’re getting delivered? Do you use them to flush the toilet or wash your clothes. It’s been a nightmare.”
Cllr Merrill said: “Our staff have worked tirelessly, day and night, to try to resolve the issue with Thames Water, supply tenants on all floors with drinking water and support those who are vulnerable. We have seen some progress over the past two days with supply and pressure increased to Bradley House, but it is not completely fixed yet. We sincerely hope that Thames Water fixes the problem very soon.”
Thames Water has been approached for comment.
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