Residents in parts of Sussex are waking up to another day without water as an outage continues.

Around 40,000 people were left without supply yesterday after a Southern Water site in Hardham, near Pulborough, had to be shut down due to “unusually low levels of chlorine”.

While the company had hoped that water supply would return overnight affected customers in Horsham, Pulborough and Billingshurst, several residents took to social media to report that their service had not been restored, with one describing the situation as “desperate”.

Water outages were reported across parts of West Sussex yesterday, including in Codmore Hill, West Chiltington, Rudgwick, Barns Green and Slinford.

A spokesman for Southern Water said that the Hardham Water Supply Works is now fully operational and that the majority of customers in West Sussex have had supply restored.

However, it said customers in the Turners Hill area will see low pressure or no water for "a little while longer" and said supply would return over the morning.

The spokesman said: "We are using tankers and rezoning parts of the network where we can to reduce the number of customers who remain without water as quickly as possible.

"We are continuing to make deliveries to impacted areas, bottled water stations will also be opening this morning.

"When you leave the house today, please make sure that taps are switched off so that when water returns you don’t experience an accidental flood.

"Again, we’d like to apologise for the inconvenience this situation caused over the weekend and thank our customers for their patience as we work to fix the issue and return water supply."

A bottled water station is open at the K2 Crawley Leisure Centre in Pease Pottage Hill.

It comes as students start their GCSE exams, with the water company promising to ensure that the secondary school in the area has a direct water supply and experiences no disruption.

A fleet of 19 tankers supported hospitals and supply where it was most needed yesterday as residents and local services struggled due to the outage.

When the water supply returns, customers can expect:

  • A temporary discolouration of water from taps
  • A chlorine smell or taste, due to small amounts of chlorine that remain in the supply of water
  • Air locks in pipes, which can be cleared by running taps for a short period
  • An increased number of external leaks, with customers urged to report any leaks they see in their area to Southen Water online