We were only into the first week of October, when Thames Water unexpectedly announced that one of their huge distribution pipes had burst in Hackney, leaving nearly 6,000 homes in East London without any form of running water.  

It was Tuesday afternoon, I had just finished my online lesson, and I started to wash the dishes. I noticed that the water pressure was abnormally low and after checking with our neighbours, I  realised that it wasn’t only a problem with our water supply, but with everyone on the street. Despite frantic phone calls to Thames Water, it was only after word had spread on social media that we discovered it was not only a problem with our street, rather our entire postcode and EIGHT others.   

Thames Water announced that all residents living within the postcodes of: E6,E7,E10, E11,E12,E13,E15,16 and E20 would either have low pressure or no water at all. The water utility company also wrote on Twitter that their ‘specialist engineers are on site and will be working as hard as possible to restore [everyone’s] water supply,’ and were ‘really sorry’ to those impacted.  

After reading several tweets from Thames Water and looking at their websites for updates, the water in my house had completely gone, which is when the use of countless bottles of mineral water really began.   

In less than a few hours, ‘#eastlondon’ was trending on Twitter and the younger generation took it upon themselves (as usual) to bring some comic relief to this catastrophic event.   

However, whilst they were tweeting away and making memes, the employers at local stores within these postcodes struggled with the sudden demand from customers who were bulk buying bottled water. Whilst on one hand some residents of these postcodes battled it out in convenience stores for any remaining bottles left on shelves, others were willingly distributing bottles to the elderly and vulnerable. More so than ever in the current climate, water plays a vital role in keeping us sanitised and safe.  

I think many of us thought that this issue would only last for a few hours. However, due to the lack of water after several hours, many school/colleges were forced to close, leaving students and teachers to work from home the following day.  

The employers at Thames Water worked hard throughout the night, only to bring back water to most homes by midday, the next day.   

It was definitely an unusual situation to be in, however we can expect anything from 2020 at this point.   

Side note: To those of you who were in the affected areas or are in the general habit of using plastic water bottles, please remember to recycle your plastic water bottles ensuring you remove the wrapper before doing so!