Thousands left without water and drivers rescued from Aston flooding due to burst pipe
Rangzeb Hussain
June 14, 2023
Thousands of residents were left without water and drivers had to be rescued by firefighters after a burst water pipe caused flooding and major disruption in Aston on Wednesday morning.
Aston Hall Road, near the junction with Lichfield Road, was flooded and traffic diversions were put in place in both directions at around 5:30am.
The flood, caused by a burst water pipe, also led to disruption to local schools on Wednesday and bus services in the area were forced to take alternative routes.
Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Majid Mahmood, said a string of postcodes in the city had been affected – the major leak was near the Star City entertainment complex – and advised drivers to avoid the area due to congestion and the danger posed by the flood to drivers.
Cllr Majid Mahmood Cllr Mahmood spoke about firefighters rescuing drivers from the the flood: “Several people were rescued by firefighters from stranded vehicles.”
The flooding also left thousands of residents without water and some people – who still had running water – reported discolouration in their water supply.
“The disruption is quite severe. We’ve got no water at all, it’s an emergency across large parts of the city,” added Cllr Mahmood.
Cllr Majid Mahmood The lack of water led to a rush at local shops with customers bulk buying water bottles which led to purchase limits.
A spokesperson for Severn Trent Water said around 5,000 people had been affected and issued an apology and reassured residents that engineers were at the scene trying to resolve the problem which involves “complex repairs to a large pipe”.
Cllr Majid Mahmood Severn Trent issued an update as engineers worked on repairing the water pipe: “We’re pleased to share that customers in the affected area should now have their water back on, and our teams will now be focusing on repairing the burst pipe.
“As we’ve moved water around the network to get everyone’s water back on, this may cause some slight discolouration, we’d like to reassure people this is nothing to worry about and it will clear.
“We know the burst has caused traffic issues in the area, and we’re sorry about this and we’re working closely with the council and emergency services to keep everyone safe but look to ease the congestion in the area also.
“We want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we worked to get the supply back on, and we’ll be doing everything to get the pipe fixed, and area back to normal as soon as we can.”
