Southern Water buys new fleet of tankers in Sussex

Southern Water has bought several tankers capable of carrying up to 30,000 litres of water to ferry it around the county in the event of an emergency.

It comes after residents of one street were “inundated with sewage” several times last year.

Orient Road in Lancing saw pipes burst five times between October and December, causing flooding and sewage to be “plastered” on the road and cars.

Orient Road in Lancing saw several pipes burst last year

Paul Riordan, logistics operational manager for Southern Water, explained that they do not wish to use the tankers but want to deal with emergencies effectively when required.

He told The Argus: “The reality is these measures are the last thing we want to do, we don’t want to have tankers outside people’s houses taking waste water.

"We don’t want to have to bring water tankers to bring people a supply of water, we certainly don’t want to be opening up bottled water stations for vulnerable customers.

“However we do need to be in a position where we can do that very effectively when we need to.

Tankers were sent to drain water from the road last year

“We have a huge amount of bottled water if we need it in the event of an emergency. Around 350,000 litres of water if needed.

“Our true aim is to make sure our network is resilient as possible to reduce those customer impacting events.”

The pipes around Orient Road are said to be an older network which have since been filled with a special plastic lining.

Simon Fluendy, press officer for Southern Water, said: “It’s an older network of pipes, Southern Water’s network is a patchwork of pipes from different little local companies.

Work on Orient Road in October

"Some of them took unusual engineering decisions back in the 1980s.

“In the old days, we just had to dig up absolutely everything to replace the pipe.

“What we do now is get a polymer lining which gets pushed through the pipe and then they blow air through to inflate it and an ultra violet light is put through which hardens it.

“It effectively builds a new pipe inside the old pipe and instead of digging an entire new road, you just have a hole at either end.

“It’s far less expensive as you don’t have to dig up an entire street.

“We were very supported by the community there who were understanding.”

Southern Water has also issued a plea for people to use water "wisely" this summer.