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Gatwick Airport left without running water after major outage

24 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on Google

Ewan Somerville,BBC Newsand<br>Tanya Gupta,South East

Supplied

An alert was posted on screens in the airport advising passengers of the disruption

Passengers at Gatwick Airport have faced long queues for toilets and closed restaurants and bars after a major water supply outage.

Both terminals at the UK's second busiest airport lost running water on Sunday morning after a power failure at a treatment works that serves the area.

People told the BBC of confusion and frustration as all bars and restaurants were shut, some were left with nowhere to sit and waits built up outside toilets.

Gatwick said it was still experiencing disruption and was handing out bottled water, while SES Water, the company that supplies the airport, said the power outage was fixed but water still needed to be treated before returning supply.

The company, which also supplies parts of Kent, Surrey and south London, said complications caused by a power outage at Bough Beech treatment works meant some customers had experienced low water pressure or a temporary loss of supply.

A spokesperson had earlier confirmed that Gatwick Airport was affected.

In an update just before 13:45 BST, they said: "Our Bough Beech water treatment works are back up and running.

"We now need to treat the water before returning services to normal as quickly as we possibly can."

Gatwick apologised and said the supply issue was continuing to cause disruption on Sunday afternoon.

In a statement, it said: "There is currently no water supply in either terminal.

"Our staff are on hand to support passengers and provide assistance where needed, some restaurant partners have opened to provide additional seating."

The airport said it was monitoring the situation and working closely with the water company to restore supplies as quickly as possible.

'At least provide chairs'

Earlier, passenger Paul Lee told the BBC he had not heard any announcements about the issue or seen bottled water being handed out.

He said: "For people who need to go to the toilet, this isn't good, and still no announcement or official information - and the water they mentioned isn't being distributed.

"I'm taking off soon, so that's fine, but for passengers in a few hours, this will be bad."

Lee added that restaurants and lounges were shut but shops were open.

Former MP and ex-CEO of UK Music Michael Dugher urged the airport on social media to "at least allow people to use the chairs in all the closed restaurants and bars".

He said: "No water is one thing but depriving people of somewhere to sit is another... families are having to sit on the floor."

Roger Wood

Passenger Roger Wood says Wetherspoons staff were turning people away

BBC reporter Adam Dowling, who was flying from Valencia to Gatwick, said his flight had been delayed because of the water supply disruption and passengers had been informed that landing slots were being moved around "to reduce the number of flights" coming in to Gatwick.

The BBC has contacted Gatwick Airport to confirm if there has been any flight disruption.

Roger Wood, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, said he thought his friends were joking when they told him there were no restaurants or bars open in Gatwick's south terminal.

When he arrived to meet them ahead of his flight on Sunday, he found "there was no water at all - no Nando's, no Wetherspoon, all of those places were completely shut and stopping people coming in as there was no fresh water or ability to wash hands".

Wood told the BBC: "The only place you could buy something was places like Pret and Itsu where it was packaged food, or...