A huge water outage has struck nearly 60,000 homes and left supplies running dry for schools in Hampshire.
Thousands of people are without running water in Southampton, the New Forest, Eastleigh, and the Test Valley, and nine schools have closed as a result.
Southern Water has said it has fixed the fault and hopes to restore all supplies to customers by the weekend, including bottled water stations in Marchwood, Eastleigh, and Totton.
The major disruption for customers comes as the regulator Ofwat announced the average water bill will rise by an average of £86 next year.
Southern has apologised for the “ongoing disruption” and said supplies could be restored on Thursday. However, the problem will not be fixed fully until the weekend.
A spokesperson said: “If these works proceed to our current plan, customers should start to see supplies restored during tomorrow, but some areas may take longer. We are working towards all customers being back in supply by the weekend.”
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