After a water pipe burst in Goole, East Yorkshire, residents described their horror when “very discoloured, very dirty” brown water flowed from their taps.
Ryan Longley, 31, who owns livestock, kennels and a cattery, is one of the thousands of people affected in the area.
Mr Longley claims he received “no warning” from Yorkshire Water, which is responsible for providing wastewater services in Goole, before murky water began flowing from his kitchen faucet.
“It was horrendous. The water was very discoloured, very dirty. It was not usable at all,” he said.
“There was no warning that there would be murky water. If there was, we would have filled up all our water sources to help out all the animals.”
Yorkshire Water sent a water tank to Mr Longley’s property for his animals, but he said that the water inside was dirty and murky too.
A report published this week by the regulatory body Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water revealed that Yorkshire Water “failed its customers in Goole” after 12,700 households were impacted between 27 October and 13 November 2023 due to a burst water pipe in its system.
The report found that, during this period, customers experienced a range of problems, including “low water pressure, murky and gritty water, or no water at all.”
Residents claim they were left unable to bathe, do household chores or turn their heating on during the start of the winter period.
Of the 12,700 households affected, only 44 were reportedly provided with bottled supplies from Yorkshire Water.
Lynn Parker, senior director for casework, enforcement, and customers at Ofwat said: “Goole residents faced a huge disruption to their lives over the course of a fortnight as we approached winter.
“Yorkshire Water didn’t fully communicate to customers what was happening or why, they didn’t do enough to support customers to access bottled water and, on top of all of that, they have dragged their feet when it comes to customers getting compensation.
“Clearly this is not good enough. Ofwat and CCW will work together to make sure Yorkshire Water does better and customers do not suffer the same again.’’
Although the burst pipe interfered with Yorkshire Water’s services for just over two weeks, Mr Longley claims that the firm continues to provide inadequate wastewater services.
He told i that water pressure in his home remains so low that his family cannot use more than one water source at a time.
“We can’t use the kitchen sink while using the bathroom or shower. If anyone uses water on the farm outside, we have no water at all,” he said.
“We’ve tried to get them to sort it for us but we haven’t gotten anything from them at all. We’re paying for a service and not getting it.”
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson told i that their “teams worked tirelessly” to fix the fault in Goole, “but due to the complex nature of the water system it took us longer than we would’ve liked.
“We know there were some learnings from how we handled this incident; we’ve taken these on board and made some changes to improve the service our customers would receive if this incident were to happen again,” the spokesperson added.
“No one should be out of pocket due to an incident like this one, we have already paid out over £37,000 in compensation.”
The firm added that it is working through its “technical review process which will determine what levels of additional payments will be paid to other customers in the area.” This process has taken “longer than anticipated,” but Yorkshire Water said it aims to have it “sorted in the coming weeks.”
