Yesterday morning, whilst monitoring the news networks, I came across a video of Ukrainian women collecting water from a local fountain in plastic bottles – as their ongoing support for the Neo-Nazi “Maidan” Junta has led to Russia bombing the water and electricity supplies! Despite the suffering of the Ukrainian women – the US, UK, and EU are still sending weaponry and money to the drug-taking Hitlerites in Kyiv! Imagine my surprise when I awoke yesterday to be told that “Sutton and East Surrey Water” (SES Water) – the “private” water company that is supposed to supply our water supply – had actually ran-out of water! This must have been a long time developing and is the product of low rain-fall and system-wide leaking pipes.

Originally, these pipes were laid during the Victorian times – and when the far-right Thatcher government “privatised” the water companies – the drive for share-holder profit meant that pipe-maintenance was not kept-up due to the cost. In the old days, as water dropped freely from the sky, the UK government ensured that water was “free”. With the advent of the “privatised” water companies, this changed, and the supplying of water attracted an ever-increasing monetary charge. However, even today, there is an obscure law which says that anyone requesting a glass of “tap water” must be provided with this drink “free of charge”.

The water company (SES Water) has opened “Emergency Water Supply” depots dotted throughout the Borough! Places such as Local Libraries, Town Halls, and High Street depositories have been established – operating 24-hours a day! Thousands of people are having to queue-up outside Cheam Library whilst Police Constables are keeping order by holding people back! Each person is permitted “one” plastic bottle (1-2 litres) and no more – at anyone visit. The problem is the time the entire process is taking – and the fact that the bottled water-supplies are continuously running-out – leaving thousands empty-handed! It is strongly suggested that only the young and fit queue-up (with no young children) due to the stress involved. SES Water is delivering water to the doors of those who can prove they are “vulnerable”! My view is that water-lorries should be visiting all main streets (as happened during the 1976 Drought – when the Labour government sent relief lorries to nearly every Council Estate – and I carried a bucket with my parents as a nine-year-old). This would stop huge crowds gathering, illnesses spreading, and limit civil unrest! As for ourselves, we are holding-out with the vigour of Maoist Resistance! Even the local schools have closed early for the Xmas holiday due to having no access to water supplies!

Network Latest

Cheam Water Treatment Works incident

Update as at: 21:50 17/12/24

Our teams are working incredibly hard to fix this issue at our Cheam Water Treatment Works. As of this evening, whilst progress is being made the issue remains the same meaning unfortunately, customers will continue to experience interruptions to their water supply, including complete loss of service. These areas again are KT17, KT19, KT4, SM6, SM1, SM3, SM4, SM5. 

Available Bottled Water Stations:

Please note, Westcroft Leisure Centre, along Westcroft Rd in Carshalton, SM5 2TG will be closed from 10pm tonight re-opening at 7am tomorrow. Our other three station are open overnight and are as follows:

• Cheam Library, Church Rd, Sutton SM3 8QH.  Access via Park Rd.
• Bourne Hall in Ewell, KT17 1UG. Access via Spring St.
• Upper High Street Car Park KT17 4DU. Access via Upper High Street main road. 

We are aware that Cheam currently has our longest wait times. Therefore we would advise customers if you are able to travel nearby to Bourne Hall or Upper High Street, please consider this. 

What to do if you are an existing or think you might need to be a priority services customer, for example, you have a visual impairment or have limited access:

If you, or a member of your household requires Priority Service Register needs, contact us directly by calling 01737 772000. By calling, we will make specific arrangements to ensure bottled water is delivered to your address. To find out more information on our Priority Service Register please visit our page here:

Ongoing Actions and Next Steps:

We are closely monitoring all sites we are assessing suitable areas for additional sites to operate from tomorrow. 

Our customer call centre will be open from 8am. Call 01737 772000 to speak to a member of our team. You can also use this number 24/7 for emergencies.

Thank you for bearing with us while we make these essential repairs. We will be providing further updates on this page as soon as we are able to. 

Next Update will be provided by tomorrow morning or earlier.

21:50 17/12/24

We’re pleased to confirm a fourth bottled water station is now open at Cheam Library, Church Rd, Sutton SM3 8QH. This will remain open throughout the night. 

Thank you for your understanding and patience whilst our teams are working round the clock to resolve this issue.

20:00 17/12/24


We have now opened a third bottled water station at West Croft Leisure Centre, Westcroft Road, Carshalton, SM5 2TG.

Thank you for your ongoing patience while we continue to resolve this complex fault at our Cheam Water Treatment Works.

13:00 17/12/24

Our teams continue to work around the clock to repair the fault at our Cheam Treatment Works.

In the meantime our bottled water stations remain open at:

Bourne Hall in Ewell, KT17 1UG

Upper High Street Car Park KT17 4DU

We will also be in place to announce new bottled water stations shortly.

We are very sorry for the continued disruption and stress this situation will be causing and are doing all we can to return your water supplies back to normal.

12:00 17/12/24

Unfortunately, our Cheam Treatment Works remains out of service. Work has been ongoing throughout the night and will continue until the issue is resolved.

Overnight, we have been able to recover water supplies and have continued to utilise our network to manage storage in the area. Storage levels are very low and we would be grateful for our customers to use water carefully to preserve as much storage in the system as possible.

Some customers may experience low pressure and no supplies throughout parts of today. Bottled water stations remain in place at the following locations:

Bourne Hall in Ewell, KT17 1UG

Upper High Street Car Park KT17 4DU

07:00 17/12/24


We are pleased to confirm that supplies are starting to return to normal.

However, some customers may continue to experience lower pressure or intermittent loss of supply. Our water storage remains low in the area and therefore customers may experience further interruption to their supply tomorrow (17/12/2024).

Our bottled water stations remain open at Upper High Street Car Park, KT17 4DU and Bourne Hall in Ewell, KT17 1UG. When your water returns it may be cloudy, white, or discoloured.

In most cases, this can be cleared by running the cold kitchen tap. Teams are working round the clock to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We are very sorry for the continued disruption and thank you for your patience.

00:17 17/12/24

We are very sorry for the continued disruption.

By way of an update, we’ve set up a second bottled water station in Upper High Street Car Park, KT17 4DU, which will open from 10:30pm tonight (16 December) and run through into tomorrow morning.

The existing station at Bourne Hall in Ewell will remain open throughout the night and into the morning.

We will also be looking to set-up further stations tomorrow and will update this page with their location.

Thank you for your continued patience.

22:25pm 16/12/2024

Due to an ongoing fault at our Cheam Water Treatment Works, customers in parts of Sutton, Morden and Epsom may be experiencing low pressure or no supply.

Our engineers are working hard to fix the problem as quickly as possible and we have a bottled water station set up at Bourne Hall in Ewell, KT17 1UG. 

We’re sorry for the disruption caused and thank you for bearing with us while we make these essential repairs. 

The next update will be at 22:30hrs tonight (16 December)

17:33pm 16/12/24

Due to a fault at our Cheam Water Treatment Works, customers in Sutton, Carshalton, Morden, Cheam, North Cheam, Wallington, Hackbridge, Worcester Park, Epsom, Ewell, and South Croydon may currently be experiencing interruptions to their water supply. 

Our teams are on site, working hard to fix this as quickly as possible, and return your supplies back to normal. We’re sorry for the disruption caused and thank you for bearing with us while we make these essential repairs. We will be providing regular updates on this page.Updated 19.55 on Tuesday 17th December 2024

Epsom, Sutton, Morden, south Croydon: Third day with low or no water

18th December

By Amy Clarke@AmyClarke1998-Multimedia Reporter

SES Water says its teams are working around the clock to resolve the issue, which has caused low (Image: Pixabay)

Efforts to fix the ongoing water supply issues caused by a fault at the Cheam Water Treatment Works are now in their third day.

SES Water confirmed this morning, December 18, that significant progress has been made overnight, but some areas in south London continue to face disruptions.

The fault, caused by a failure of a critical valve at the site, has restricted water flow to parts of the network since December 16.

While many residents saw water supplies return last night, those in KT17, KT19, KT4, SM6, SM1, SM3, SM4, and SM5 postcodes may still experience low water pressure or no supply today as the network stabilises.

SES Water has urged customers to conserve water to help maintain the system’s capacity while repairs are finalised.

Storage levels remain low across the affected regions, which include Sutton, Carshalton, Morden, Cheam, North Cheam, Wallington, Hackbridge, Worcester Park, Epsom, Ewell, and South Croydon.

SES Water has set up four bottled water stations:

• Cheam Library, Church Road, Sutton, SM3 8QH (access via Park Road)
• Bourne Hall, Ewell, KT17 1UG (access via Spring Street)
• Upper High Street Car Park, KT17 4DU (access via Upper High Street)
• Westcroft Leisure Centre, Westcroft Road, Carshalton, SM5 2TG

Customers unable to visit these locations, especially those registered with the Priority Service Register, can arrange home deliveries by contacting SES Water directly at 01737 772000.

Cheam High School announced its closure on December 18 due to health and safety concerns linked to the water crisis.

The school confirmed the decision on social media, stating it would remain shut until the situation improves.

SES Water teams, alongside specialist partners, claim they have been working round the clock to address the issue.

For urgent assistance or updates, SES Water’s customer contact centre remains operational 24/7 at 01737 772000.

Further updates are expected later this morning as efforts to resolve the situation continue.