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Incident guide

Sometimes, things go wrong causing supply interruptions, water quality issues and flooding. Examples of this include:

  • Burst mains
  • Pumps failing
  • Unexpected changes to planned work

Incidents can affect customers in different ways. We’re here to support you during an incident and get you back into supply as quickly as we can. 97% of the time water is back in supply within 12 hours.

Two engineers assessing leaks

Different types of incidents 

Incidents are problems on our network that affect multiple customers. Our response differs depending on the duration and number of properties affected. We categorise each incident as either ‘minor’ or ‘major’.

Minor incidents

A minor incident will only affect a small number of customers. Minor incidents are typically due to supply interruptions.

Major incidents

A major incident affects many customers. Major incidents include supply interruptions, flooding from a burst main, and water quality. 

For wastewater incidents such as sewer flooding, please call our customer care team on 0800 316 9800. For leaks or faults with your internal stop valve, visit our leaks page

Water incident guidance

Our helpful guides go through the different stages of an incident, from preparing to during and after.

Delivery of bottle water

How to prepare for an incident

We go through how you can prepare if an incident happens.

View incident preparation

A Thames worker turning off the water in the street

What happens during an incident

Our guide goes through what happens during an incident.

View during an incident

Kitchen tap

After an incident has happened

We go through what to expect and do after an incident has happened.

View after an incident