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Frustrated residents in Flintshire have been left without water for a second day as some parts of Wales prepare for this year’s fourth heatwave.
Thousands of people have been affected by a burst water main in Broughton, with residents helping deliver bottled water to others, and long queues reported at water stations.
Welsh Water said the water main will be fixed on Friday afternoon, although it warned disruption could continue with supplies expected to be restored to everyone on Sunday.
“This will take time as we need to avoid causing any secondary bursts on this extensive network which is over 500km,” it said.
The burst water main is affecting residents in Flint, Holywell, Ffynnongroyw, Greenfield, Llanerch y Mor, Mostyn, Oakenholt, Talacre, Whitford, Aston, Queensferry, Hawarden, Ewloe, Mancot, Garden City, Shotton, Northop, Deeside and the surrounding areas.
Two Cymru Premier matches have also been postponed due to the disruption.
Bottled water stations across Flintshire are keeping people topped up but some have seen long queues.
Beth Hall, animal keeper at Greenacres Animal Park which has a variety of farm and exotic animals, said she was concerned about the impact on the animals.
“We have camels that could drink 200ml in the space of a couple of minutes. We’re heavily reliant on bottled water donations,” she said.
“We [humans] have other sources of water like fizzy drinks, but animals rely on water.
“Its affected us a lot as a business. We rely on the summer holidays to get us through winter months.”
Ricky Blackwell from Connah’s Quay is part of Deeside Roundtable community group and has started delivering water to local residents.
“Obviously we go to a lot of disabled people and pensioners who haven’t been able to get it, they phone up and ask for priority deliveries,” he said.
“We put them on the list but we can’t guarantee it because obviously there’s such a demand at the moment. So we’ve taken it off our own backs to just go round and get the water out to them.”
Fiona Lettsome from Queensferry has been without water since Thursday and travelled to Mold for supplies.
“I come up to my daughter’s and I didn’t know it had come off obviously until I saw it on the news.
“I live on my own but you still need water for things like the toilet, so I’m using my water bottle,” she said.
James Fox, from Queensferry, said his water also went off on Thursday morning.
“We’ve been coming since then to come and get water. There’s not much we can do,” he said.
Welsh WaterWelsh Water CEO Peter Perry has apologised to customers, and said the company was working “around the clock” to get water back on, as well as providing alternative supplies.
He said the delay was due to the “nature of the main”, which is 30 inches (76cm) in diameter and 16ft (5m) underground.
He added the “safety of our workforce” had to be considered due to the complex nature of the main.
The company said the repair on a large main in Broughton carried out last weekend was done to get people back on supply as quickly as possible and allow it to refill the network.
“It wasn’t meant to be a temporary repair, it was meant to be a permanent repair,” Mr Perry told Radio Wales Breakfast.
“Unfortunately that began to leak,” he said, adding that engineers had planned to fix the main on Thursday evening under “controlled conditions” but were unable to do so.
Rosetta Dolphin, Flintshire county councillor for the Greenfield ward affected by the main, said there were a number of homes without water.
“They have had water stations put up yesterday, and that was replenished at least four times that I know of,” she said, adding that fire services had been brought in to help distribute water.
She added that some people who thought they were on a priority list were not, urging anyone who thinks they might be to double check.
Welsh Water said it was continuing to support those most vulnerable in the community.
Additional reporting by Matthew Richards
