THOUSANDS of homes were left without water in an unexpected weekend ‘drought’ across a large swathe of Rotherham.

Residents in Aughton, Dinnington, Thurcroft, Anston, Wickersley and Kiveton Park complained of lack of supply, low pressure or discoloured water in their homes.

Their supply was interrupted around 8pm on Saturday, eventually resuming – if discoloured at first – around mid morning Sunday. Some homes in South Anston are still reporting discoloured water on Monday morning.

Angry local MP Jake Richards called Yorkshire Water chief executive Nicola Shaw to account.

Water issues: South Anston was one of the places affected

placeholder image — Water issues: South Anston was one of the places affected

He said 40-50,000 of his constituents had been affected.

The company replied that the fault had been due to a power outage at Aughton pumping station.

Their engineering teams had worked overnight with teams from the National Power Grid and pallets of bottled water were left at five locations.

Yorkshire Water apologised "for the inconvenience, and thank everyone in the area for their patience" in S8, S13, S25, S26, S66, S80, S81 postcodes.

Although patience wasn't universally on display.

A Dinnington mother of two told the Advertiser: "It was highly annoying; trying to juggle household obligations and hygiene with kids around isn't easy when you can't flush the toilet or wash their hands.

"My husband went out to get the Yorkshire Water bottled supplies but the queue was about half a mile long.

"So he went to buy some from a local petrol station and came back £25 worse off for 15 average sized bottles!

"When the water came back on again, it took a fair while before it looked remotely drinkable."

MP Richards said while some bottled water had been available in places like Anston, there were other suburbs who were given nothing.

The idea of "vulnerable neighbours" struggling had concerned him, he said, adding her shared locals' "frustration and concern."

"I will be pressing Yorkshire Water for clear answers on why this failure occurred, what contingency measures were in place, whether those measures were sufficient and what lessons will be learned to prevent this happening again" he said.

"Residents deserve reassurance that our local infrastructure is resilient and that robust backup systems are in place."

Former MP Alex Stafford added: "This should not have happened, and residents quite rightly expect better resilience from essential services."

He said some consumers may be entitled to compensation from Yorkshire Water.