A three-month leak on a main route has been branded a “terrific waste of water” with utility firm bosses urged to tackle the problem.
Since springing up in April, water has flowed along the Canterbury street prompting repeated calls for South East Water to fix its underground pipes.
A spokesman for the water giant has today apologised for delays and assured steps are being taken for repairs to get underway.
Karen Evans, who has lived in Dover Road for 24 years, claims she is one of many residents who have called for urgent action.
But while the firm’s phone operators have been polite, water continues to trickle along the busy thoroughfare, she says.
“It started with a small leak on the vets' side of the road.
“The water then started dribbling out through the middle of the road.
“It’s causing a big puddle in the road which impedes pedestrians – they can’t walk by if a bus is coming the other way because they’ll get splashed.
“It’s just a terrific waste of water. We are a county that suffers from water shortages and yet that’s been allowed to dribble for three months.”
Despite South East Water workers being in the road only last week to fix a burst water pipe, nothing was done to the three-month seepage – which was visible from where repairs were happening.
“This leak must be about 100 steps away from where the burst water pipe was last week,” Mrs Evans added.
“I know the staff at the vets opposite the leak have been making calls daily and a number of people who have walked past it have said they have complained too.
“I think the leak is actually getting worse and I think it would be interesting to monitor just how much is going down those drains and work out how much water has been wasted over the past few months.”
She fears when the repairs are eventually carried out, the major route will have to be shut again – sparking traffic chaos.
“I understand they have to close the road to do it so it’s not an easy task but that’s why it was so frustrating last week when the road was closed that they didn’t do it at the same time,” she continued.
“It’s a major road into Canterbury and you can’t just close it at the drop of a hat.
“When it was closed last week, surely they could have fixed everything.”
South East Water’s regional operations manager, Andy Beston, apologised to residents for this leak being left unrepaired.
“Due to the requirements for the repair, we needed to arrange an appropriate time and traffic management to carry out the work,” he said.
“This has been scheduled for repair on June 22, barring any major water outages in the area.
“At the time of the burst main, the priority was to stop the large loss of water and protect our customers’ water supply.
“We understand that seeing water being lost to a leak can be frustrating, and please be assured that fixing leaks and saving water remains one of our top priorities. Thank you for your patience.”
