THAMES Water says it has put in a temporary water supply as a stop gap while it fixes a broken pipe in Culham.

The problem caused tap water for many homes in Abingdon to become cloudy and smelly yesterday.

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The firm received about 50 complaints from residents after a burst pipe caused particles of a pipe lining compound to make the water cloudy.

Its first response was to hand out bottles of water to residents but the firm insists the compound is completely harmless. 

Thames Water’s head of water production Simon Earl said: "We’re pleased to say our work to put in a temporary water supply for Abingdon has been successful, and customers will see their water pressure rising throughout this afternoon today."

"We’re sorry about the difficulties faced by some of our customers in recent days and we hope their water pressure is back to normal by late afternoon.

"We’re still working around the clock to fix the original problem, the large burst pipe, but we’re progressing well and hope to have our water network back to normal again by Sunday.

"I phoned them about the smell, and they said they were working on it and there would be bottled water because of the smell, but no one has actually notified us of anything – we had to call them.

"They never said whether the water was safe to drink. Communication obviously isn’t their strong point."

The firm said it received at least 50 complaints about cloudy or smelly water, and the problem was linked to emergency repairs to a burst water main on Wednesday.

Staff said they sent 90 pallets of bottled water to Spring Road, Mill Road, Longfellow Drive and Faringdon Road overnight on Wednesday. 

Hannah Horton, mum of six-month- old Lucy, said: “I haven’t had any kind of communication or information at all.

“The postman told me about the bottled water this morning.

“I’ve heard so many different things – it’s safe, it’s not safe – it’s scary.

“I’ve got to make Lucy’s formula milk and I don’t know if I can use the water.”

Oxford Mail:

Paige Ball, two, with her mum Letitia Iley, 21, and her brother Kevin Stones, 32, and some of the bottled water that was left piled in the street outside their home by Thames Water yesterday. Picture: David Fleming

Siblings Kevin Stone and Letitia Iley collected dozens of bottles for their relatives and neighbours.

Mr Stone, 32, said: “I turned the tap on this morning and it was cloudy but I didn’t think much of it.

“Then I saw everyone talking about it on Facebook, spreading rumours and panicking people.”

Miss Iley, who has a two-year old daughter Paige, said: “We pay our water bill for a reasonable service and we’re not getting that. They’ve not done anything to tell people what’s going on.”

Town councillor Alice Badcock added: “I’m disgusted by the way this has been handled. They said to leave your tap running for 10 minutes to clear any cloudiness, but what about people on meters?”

She criticised Thames Water for not delivering water directly to people’s homes, pointing out that elderly people had struggled to carry the bottles.

Thames Water spokeswoman Sarah Sharpe said a chemical substance in the lining of water pipes caused the problems and that water was safe to drink, but admitted they had confused residents.

She said: “It was confusing when people woke up; people with no problems were concerned because they saw this bottled water.”

The firm said the water was contaminated after an eight-inch pipe on private land at Culham burst and that there were 19,000 properties on the network but couldn’t confirm how many of those had been affected.

Water quality manager David Reynolds said: “We’re sorry to customers who were alarmed at the changes to their tap water and would like to reassure them our engineers will be working around the clock to push water through the network in order to clear the last of the chemical compound.

“This could take us until lunchtime today but we will continue to provide bottled water to customers still experiencing problems.”

Thames Water also warned residents about a separate company selling water filters and taking water samples in the area, advising that people ask for identification.