AssetID: 55385022
Headline: RAW VIDEO: Bizarre moment worker delivers water to house hit by massive outage - then takes it away again
Caption: WORDS BYLINE: Elli Hodgson Footage shows the moment a delivery person photographed water supplies being left on the doorstep of a property - before taking it away. Sam Purslow, of Bucklers Close in Tunbridge Wells, was “quite surprised” to discover water had been delivered then removed from his property at around 1.37am today (Thursday). It comes as 6,500 properties in Tunbridge Wells remain without water after the storage tank dropped below the level needed for boosters to run. Earlier today, Ofwat announced it was investigating South East Water for its handling of the matter. The firm said it would deliver bottled drinking water and greywater toilet flushing bags to the 6,500 households affected from Wednesday evening onwards. Footage captured on Sam’s Ring doorbell shows a man in a high viz jacket and headtorch delivering water to his neighbours. Moments later, he is seen moving the packs of six water bottles over to Sam’s property before snapping a picture of the delivery. The water is subsequently removed from the doorstep and the man is seen walking away from the house down his path. A South East Water spokesperson said it was “very concerned” about the footage and said it had been supported by a third-party to carry out deliveries to all affected customers because of the scale of the operation. They said: “We are investigating these claims immediately. We'd like to thank customers for sharing their experiences to make us aware." Initially, Sam was pleasantly surprised to hear water would be delivered to his doorstep instead of having to attend the bottled water stations and having to queue for ages, after facing more than a week of problems. When he woke up and saw a delivery hadn’t arrived as promised, he was hopeful it would arrive later that day. However, it was only once he’d arrived at work his wife called to reveal the doorbell footage showing the fleeting delivery in the early hours. He said: “The bloke came to my neighbour, dropped off the water, has taken a picture to maybe show his bosses or whatever, yep it’s been delivered, picked up the water, carried it over to my bit. It was quite surprising.” After sharing the video on social media, vehicle technician Sam had a bottled water delivery arrive at his doorstep just after 11am. A SEW spokesperson said: “The 6,500 properties in Tunbridge Wells on the boosted system currently remain without water after the levels in the area’s drinking water storage tank dropped below the level the boosters can run. "As of 5.30pm last night, we have implemented a new recovery plan for Tunbridge Wells, which involves keeping local booster pumps switched off today. Our aim is that customers wake up to a consistent water supply by tomorrow morning (Friday). "Despite our best efforts, the local drinking water storage tanks have not refilled at the speed required. To resolve this, we must extend the outage to allow the storage tanks to recover fully.”
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