Overview
- A large water main in West Molesey began leaking early on Monday and forced a major outage across south‑west London and parts of Surrey.
- Thames Water said engineers located and isolated the broken pipe by Monday afternoon and that most customers have had water restored, though some may still see low pressure while a permanent repair is completed.
- The company rerouted supply, used tankers, opened bottled‑water stations and made priority deliveries to customers on its register to support vulnerable residents.
- The fault was initially thought to affect up to 15,000 properties before the figure was reduced to about 6,000, and local reports said the leak released roughly 750 litres of water per second across postcodes in five London boroughs plus Elmbridge and Spelthorne.
- The failure disrupted schools, emptied bottled‑water shelves and prompted local MPs and campaigners to demand answers about Thames Water’s ageing pipes, leakage record and the levels of investment and regulation needed to improve resilience.