Schools Close as Burst Water Main Cuts Water to Thousands of Homes Across Surrey and South-West London

Thousands of homes across Surrey and south-west London woke up without running water on Monday morning after a major burst water main near West Molesey flooded streets and cut supplies, forcing several schools to close for the day.

Around 15,000 properties were reported to be affected in the early hours of the morning, with customers across 18 postcode areas — including Esher, Walton, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth — facing total outages or low pressure, according to Thames Water. The leak was traced to a burst main near the Island Barn Reservoir in West Molesley, and is spilling an estimated 750 litres of water per second, the local MP said.

Several schools, including Esher Sixth Form College, Holy Cross School and Long Ditton Infant and Nursery School, announced they would stay closed because of the disruption. In a statement issued at 11.25am, Thames Water said its teams were on site and had begun rerouting supplies around the area, warning the work must be done carefully to avoid burst pipes and that repairs could take some time. The company is also delivering bottled water to vulnerable customers on its Priority Services Register.

Esher and Walton MP Monica Harding said she was pressing the company for a full explanation, calling it the second major incident of its kind in three months, and promised a further update later in the day.

Sources

• Thames Water — latest network updates
• The Sun — schools close after Thames Water outage
• South London News — Thames Water pipe leak forces school closures