Over the past few days West Sussex County Council including the fire and rescue service has provided help and support to villages who lost their water supply.
Water shortages hit parts of Mid Sussex and Crawley as a result of last week’s cold weather which caused issues such as water leaks as frozen pipes thawed.
The water companies have now had water supply restored.
In response to the lack of water supply West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service and staff from the county council helped to ensure that households in the affected areas had a regular fresh drinking water supply. More than 2,500 bottles of water were distributed to vulnerable local people.
This included going door to door handing out water supplies, checking what support people needed and checking water supply problems.
They also delivered water to central pick-up points and directly supplied care homes and other services which rely on water. The county council’s meals on wheels service also delivered water alongside its normal service.
The county council had a central phone line available for residents and businesses to call if they needed help and support available until late each night.
Louise Goldsmith, Leader of the council said: “It is very good news that water supplies are now restored and communities can get back to normal.
“Our staff worked tirelessly to make sure our most vulnerable had access to water, whether that was people living in our care homes, our schools, families with young children, elderly or disabled people, it’s another example of WSCC being there for its residents in an emergency.
“We see it is an essential role of the council that we are there to support our communities when they need us most.”
The county council is now encouraging residents and businesses to recycle all the used plastic bottles. For more information about recycling see www.westsussex.gov.uk