Severn Trent Water moves to 'Emergency Only' Status
Severn Trent Water has announced that it will be concentrating on emergency work only from now until early next week. This is in response to the current and forecast weather situation for the weekend and beyond.
The company's senior operations manager, Fraser Pithie said: "We will be concentrating our response on emergency work only – this means only where we have burst water mains or blocked sewers that directly affect the services our customers receive".
Severn Trent is also very concerned about the latest weather forecast for strengthening easterly winds. Fraser added: “Just because the snow has stopped doesn't mean that the worst of the weather is over. The forecast onset of an easterly wind, with below freezing air temperatures, is likely to make matters worse.
“Draughts blowing in open spaces or into any gaps where there are unprotected water pipes will mean a serious risk of freezing and customers losing their water supply. My advice to customers is not to wait for this to happen, as finding where a pipe is frozen and thawing it out is not always easy. Take steps now to ensure water pipes are protected from freezing winds. I would particularly appeal to customers to think of older people or those with disabilities nearby, and check things for them.
“If you do lose water supply then I’d advise you check if your neighbour has too. If your neighbour has water then it’ll more than likely be down to a frozen pipe and not a water mains issue. Only when you discover that your neighbours also don’t have water should you call us. If you do find that it is just your property affected we recommend that you call a plumber rather than Severn Trent Water as there is very little we can do to help.
Finally, the company is stressing the need for home owners and businesses to locate and check the operation of the internal stop tap. Fraser said: "If you are unlucky enough to get frozen up and lose your water supply it is highly likely that when the thaw comes you will have a burst - so you will need to be able to turn the water off. Don't wait for thaw to come, turn off the stop tap immediately as that will stop water damage taking place during any burst.
“Prevention really is better than cure,” he added.
Severn Trent has warned that the thaw, when it comes, will bring further problems to customers - when frozen pipes begin to thaw out, they contract exposing where ice has expanded and caused weak points to split or joints to break along their length.
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