Families have woken up with no water this morning after rapidly thawing snow and ice has caused water mains to fail.
South East Water have apologised to customers after saying that they have seen a “dramatic increase” in burst pipes across Sussex.
Homes have been forced to survive off bottled water while pipes are repaired.
One resident said that she had been forced to melt snow to flush her toilet, according to the BBC.
A statement on the South East Water website said: “We are very sorry to customers in the West Hoathly, Sharpthorne and Selsfield areas who are without water.
“Supplies will be intermittent while we find and fix an increase in burst water pipes caused by the freezing weather.
"The burst have resulted in the storage tanks, which hold treated water before it is pumped to homes and businesses, running very low.
“Our teams are working 24/7 to repair leaks as we become aware of them but we’re unable to predict which pipes will burst when so react a soon as we’re aware.”
A map of the affected area shows that large swathes of land between Crawley, East Grinstead and Haywards Heath are without water.
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