Southern WaterA water company said there was “still a risk” thousands of households could lose supplies on Christmas Eve but “good progress” was being made to repair a burst main.
Southern Water said it was delivering bottled water to about 15,000 vulnerable customers in Hastings and surrounding areas by Wednesday afternoon as a precaution.
The rupture was discovered in a woodland area north of the East Sussex town.
Customers have been asked by the water firm not to use more water than usual or stockpile mains water “as this will make the situation worse”.
According to the company’s managing director for water, Tim McMahon, the best case, and most likely scenario, was that there would be no supply interruption.
He said the worst case scenario was that water supply would go off at 20:00 GMT “but return for Christmas morning”.
“We are very confident that there will not be an interruption of supply for customers,” he told BBC Radio Sussex.
Mr McMahon said Southern Water was putting precautions in place after “learnings” from a multiple-day supply failure in the Hastings area in May 2024, which affected over 32,000 properties.
The company said it was preparing to open bottled water stations in case they were needed and had tankers on standby.
Tankers could be deployed to the Conquest Hospital and nursing homes if required, according to Mr McMahon.
He said he was “very sorry for the concern and anxiety”.
Southern WaterA Southern Water spokesperson said: “Our teams have worked hard overnight to expose the pipe and remove the damaged section.
“Work is now underway to fit a new length of pipe.
“Once this is complete, it will then take some time for us to get water flowing through the network and out of our supply works.
“There is still a risk customers might lose supply this evening.”
‘Business as usual’
Hastings borough councillor Becca Horn told BBC Radio Sussex that the prospect of Christmas without water was “just really unthinkable” and she was “really hoping that it doesn’t get to that point”.
John Bownas, of the Hastings Business Improvement District, said he had ” a degree of confidence that a lot of people don’t share that this will get sorted”.
He said it was still “business as usual” in the town while the water supply remained on.
The main had burst multiple times in recent years but only once led to a supply failure, according to Mr Bownas.
Mr McMahon said a £50m project to replace the pipe over three years was scheduled to begin in the new year.
