Several schools have been forced to close due to a water outage in parts of Sussex.

Residents in parts of Crawley and Turners Hill remain without supply this morning following a fault at a Southern Water site near Pulborough.

Up to 40,000 homes were left without water yesterday due to the issue, with people relying on bottled water being issued at stations across parts of the county.

While Southern Water has said the majority of customers have had their supply restored, seven schools have had to close due to continuing issues.

The schools affected are:

  • Barns Green Primary School
  • Brook Infant School and Nursery, Maidenbower, Crawley
  • Slinfold Church of England Primary School
  • St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School, Crawley
  • St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Crawley
  • Three Bridges Primary
  • West Green Primary School

It comes as secondary school pupils across the country begin to sit their GCSE exams this week.

Southern Water said it has put a plan in place to ensure the secondary school in the area affected by the outage has a “direct supply” and experiences no disruption.

The company has apologised for the continuing inconvenience some customers have faced and thanked them for their patience as work continues to restore supply.

A spokesman for Southern Water said: “Hardham Water Supply Works is fully operational and the majority of our customers in West Sussex will be waking up to water. 

“Customers in the Turners Hill area will see low pressure or no water for a little while longer. This should return over the morning.  

“We are using tankers and rezoning parts of the network where we can to reduce the number of customers who remain without water as quickly as possible. 

“We are continuing to make deliveries to impacted areas, bottled water stations will also be opening this morning.”

A bottled water station has been opened at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley for those affected by the continued outage.