Water supply not working as it should?

We know it’s worrying and frustrating when you’ve got any kind of problem with your water supply. So here’s some helpful information about what help and support you can expect from us when things aren’t quite right.

How we’ll keep you updated

Unexpected interruptions to your water supply

If you’re the main Anglian Water account holder and we’ve got an up-to-date email address or mobile number for you, we’ll send you email or text updates as soon as we know about any issues affecting your services.

If you want to check what contact information we have for you, you can sign up for – or log into - MyAccount here. If anything’s missing or not quite right, you can update it there too. Or you can give us a call on 03457 145 145.

Planned work

There are times when we might need to temporarily turn off your water to do essential, planned work. We’ll let you know in advance when we’ll be working, how long your water will be off for and when it’ll be restored. For interruptions that we know will be longer than four hours, we’ll give you written notice at least 48 hours in advance. If we don’t get your water back on within the time we’ve said, we’ll automatically credit your account with £30. You can read more about our promises to you here.

When your water supply’s not at its usual high standard

We regularly make checks on the water supply to make sure it’s up to our usual high standard. If our checks tell us something’s not quite right, we’ll get in touch with everyone affected to ask them - as a precaution - to either boil (and cool) their water before using it, or to not use their water at all until our checks show everything’s OK.

Where there’s any potential problem with the quality of your water we’ll let you know by text message and email (for customers on our Priority Services Register who only have a landline, our team will call instead). We’ll also update our website homepage with information, make use of social media like Facebook, and provide a way for you to check if your home is affected. So we can be sure everyone knows what they need to do, we’ll also post a card through the door of everyone affected. As you can imagine that can take some time, so that’s why it’s really important to make sure we have up to date contact information for you.

How you can stay in the loop

We’ll post the details of any issues on our website. Just visit here and pop in your postcode to see information about anything we’re aware of. If you can’t see anything, and you’ve spotted a problem you can let us know online or by calling 03457 145 145.

We’ll update our website with the latest from our teams on the ground so you always have the latest information available.

Extra help when your water supply’s affected

Get practical support to support a medical or physical need

If you need practical support, our Priority Services Register is here for you. It’s completely free, and once you’ve signed up, you can stay on it for as long as you like.

When there’s an interruption to your water supply our team will contact everyone in the area on our Priority Services Register to check they’re OK. Where a lack of water could have a significant impact for customers who are on the Register for a medical condition or mobility issues, we’ll deliver bottled water directly to their door. We’ll always do this for any interruption over 12 hours, but will also look to do it for shorter periods where it’s needed..

Aside from issues with your water supply, we can offer lots of different kinds of help to a wide range of people, from those with sight, hearing, or mobility difficulties, to parents with babies under 12 months old. What we can offer ranges from reading your meter for you (if you find this difficult), to sending out bills in other formats.

You don’t need to wait until there’s an issue - you can sign up to our Priority Services Register at any time here. If you only realise you need to sign up during an interruption to your supply, that’s not a problem either. You’ll just need to give us a call on 03457 145 145.

Providing an alternative water supply

When there’s been an unexpected interruption to your water supply, we’ll work as hard as we can to get everything back to normal for you as soon as possible. If we’re not going to be able to get things sorted within 12 hours, we’ll provide an alternative water supply. This could be us diverting water from elsewhere in the network, sending tankers to pump water directly into the pipes that supply your home, or delivering bottled water to you.

If it’s a large issue affecting a lot of people, or there’s a ‘boil’ or ‘do not drink’ notice in place, we’ll set up hubs for you to collect bottled water from instead or. If you’re on our Priority Services Register for a water-dependent medical condition or mobility issue we’ll deliver bottled water straight to your door. We’ll work with local councils to find the best spots for us to set up our bottled water hubs so you can get to them easily on foot or by car. As soon as we know where they’ll be and what hours they’ll be open, we’ll send you the details by email and text and post it on our website.

How you can spot our staff during an incident

Our teams will have branded Anglian Water high visibility uniform and vehicles. If you ever have any concerns, anyone who works for, or on behalf of Anglian Water, will always happily hand over their identity card for you to check. If you want to make extra certain they are who they say they are, they'll even wait while you close the door and call us on 03457 145 145 and give us the employee number on the card.

Other information

Your right to compensation

While we’ll always do our best to make sure your water supply is back as soon as possible, sometimes our repairs prove challenging. When that happens we’ll always look to divert water from elsewhere in the network or bring in tankers to keep your taps flowing. If the issue is more complicated and you’re completely without water for over 12 hours you’ll be entitled to compensation as part of our Guaranteed Service Standards.

After any interruption to your supply of over 12 hours, we’ll look at all of the data from the monitors across our network to see who was affected and for how long. We then use that information to automatically credit your account with £30 within 20 days of the issue. If we don’t make a payment within that time, we’ll give you a further £20. If you haven’t received a credit and believe you were affected for over 12 hours, give us a call on 03457 145 145 and we’ll take a look for you. If you want to know more about the service standards we set and what happens if we don’t meet them, you can take a look here.

If our data shows you didn’t have any water coming from your taps for more than 12 consecutive hours, we’ll credit your account with £30 within 20 working days of the issue. You’ll get an extra £30 for every additional 12 hour period you’re without water. We’ll do this automatically so there’s no need to let us know.

What if I’m a business customer and not a domestic one?

We’ll keep your retailer updated with the latest during an incident. The same information will be available to all our customers here. If you need any help or advice, your retailer should be your first point of contact. For hospitals, prisons and schools we’ll always look to provide tankers to keep the water supply flowing.