Water supply returns to Cadbury and Jaguar Land Rover after shortage

The water supply has returned to Jaguar Land Rover and Cadbury, which had both been hit by a shortage that had affected much of the country.

People in some areas are being urged to use as little water as possible after thawing temperatures caused pipes to burst, with more than 20,000 properties in London and the South East disrupted over the past 48 hours.

The issue has also affected suppliers in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, as well as the North West, Yorkshire, the South West and the Midlands, which is where the affected Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plants are based.

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Early on Monday, Cadbury confirmed it had only a limited water supply to its manufacturing site in Bournville. It said manufacturing was running, and it had sufficient stock to manage demand.

JLR stopped production at its Solihull plant in Birmingham, which employs 10,000 people, and had planned to close the Castle Bromwich site, which employs 3,000, from Tuesday morning due to the shortage.

But a spokesman for water company Severn Trent said on Monday night that supply had been restored and the two businesses could now “use their water as normal”.

They added: “In the last 24 hours we have seen an increase in burst pipe alarms of nearly 4,000% caused by the big thaw.

“We’ve therefore had extra teams out on the ground working round the clock to mend the damaged pipes and this has helped to keep customers on supply.

“We’ve also been ramping up production at our treatment works and using our tankers to support local hospitals.

“It is our normal procedure to work proactively with a handful of large businesses who use a lot of water to manage their usage when we need to prioritise customer supplies.

“It enables us to make sure we have enough water for households and vulnerable customers including hospitals and care homes.

“We’d like to thank the few businesses we’ve been working with over the past couple of days for all of their help.”

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The announcement came shortly after Welsh Water confirmed it had 4,500 customers whose water supply had been affected, with more water pumped into the network in the last day than the peak period last summer.

“We are mobilising additional staff to help protect supplies by finding and fixing over 200 leaks a day – more than three times the usual amount,” a spokesman added.

“We are also asking customers to help protect water supplies by not leaving taps – internal or external – running and reporting any leaks or bursts out on roads and highways directly to the company.”

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Meanwhile, affected water companies, including Thames Water and South East Water, have united in asking customers to avoid all but essential water usage.

Some of the advice is to take short showers rather than baths, being careful to turn taps off, and only running washing machines and dishwashers with a full load.

The problems – which also forced a number of schools to close on Monday – have been caused by pipes damaged by frozen water in the low temperatures that spread across the country last week.

Some suppliers have warned that the thaw could also cause ground movement that would further damage infrastructure.

(c) Sky News 2018: Water supply returns to Cadbury and Jaguar Land Rover after shortage