Southern Water customers’ taps ran dry or lost pressure after a fault at one of its supply works

“It feels awful,” said Samantha Hargreaves as she trundled her bottle-laden trolley past queues of cars waiting for drinking water in an Asda car park. It was the second year in a row that her water supply had been cut off shortly before Christmas, and she was loading up her car with extra bottles to give to less mobile neighbours.

“There’s quite a few of us who are struggling,” said Hargreaves, a 31-year-old community healthcare assistant.