Water tankers sent to the Harborough area in the last 24 hours to help restore water to hundreds of people left high and dry

Water tankers were rushed into the Harborough area in the last 24 hours to help restore water to hundreds of angry people left high and dry.

The huge Severn Trent Water trucks, which can carry up to 30,000 litres each, were drafted into Kibworth Harcourt on Tuesday June 2.

The dramatic move seems to have worked as everyone was reported to have been reconnected by 9am on Wednesday morning.

Action was taken after scores of furious families in Kibworth, Glooston and the Langtons suddenly lost their water at the weekend.

The tankers injected thousands of litres of water into local mains in a drastic effort to boost seriously-depleted supplies.

The freak crisis has been sparked by the hottest, driest May on record in England – as well as the Covid-19 pandemic forcing people to stay at home.

A Severn Trent Water spokesman told the Harborough Mail on Wednesday morning: “We are incredibly sorry that people in the Market Harborough area have experienced problems with their water over the last few days.

“Of course, we can understand people’s anger and frustration at this situation.

“But we can report that everyone has now got their water back and is back on supply.”

He said customers across the East Midlands have been using hundreds of millions of litres of water more than normal.

“Demand has hit record levels – and this is true right across the UK, not just here in the Midlands.

“We have just had the hottest, driest May on record.

“On top of that many more people have been spending much more time at home because of the coronavirus lockdown,” said the spokesman.

“As a result customers have been using a lot more water in the garden in the hot weather.

“They have been using equipment such as sprinklers and jet washers, which are real water guzzlers, while kids have been splashing about in paddling pools.

“Demand for water has been unprecedented across the board.

“We realise that we had a very wet winter and we had a lot of rainfall then.

“But there’s a huge difference between raw water and treated water.

“We obviously cannot allow our customers to be supplied with raw water.

“And we are working flat out to treat this raw water at record levels to make it safe for people right across Severn Trent.”

To help conserve precious water, you can find some handy water-saving tips at https://www.stwater.co.uk/wonderful-on-tap/save-water/you-can-make-a-difference/