Burst water main floods roads and cuts off supply to 9,000 Crawley homes

Thousands of households across parts of Crawley lost their water supply or were left with weak pressure after a major pipe burst, while flooding forced the closure of several roads near one of the town's busiest roundabouts. Southern Water said around 9,000 customers were affected by the incident, which emergency services described as a "significant" leak.

The disruption began on Sunday morning, when a water main ruptured beneath or near the Southgate Roundabout. Water surged across the carriageway and poured into a nearby underpass, turning a stretch of the road network into a hazard and cutting off supply to surrounding neighbourhoods.

Sussex Police confirmed that roads around Southgate Roundabout were closed because of the burst pipe. Officers asked residents and passing motorists to avoid the area while emergency services worked to manage the situation safely, with road closures in place to keep people away from deep standing water and to allow repair work to begin.

Southern Water said repair teams were already on site. A company spokesperson said: "Our teams are on site and working as quickly and safely as possible to repair the burst and restore supplies." The water company added that restoring service to affected customers remained its top priority.

Customers reporting a complete loss of supply or a noticeable drop in pressure were concentrated in several Crawley neighbourhoods. The affected areas listed by Southern Water were Woolborough Road, Holmcroft, Southgate, Tilgate and Furnace Green — a spread of residential districts on the southern side of the town, close to where the main failed.

The scale of the outage prompted the firm to set up bottled water distribution points, a standard response when a supply interruption runs beyond the reach of individual households' stored water. Such stations are normally established in affected neighbourhoods so residents who have no running water, or who rely on powered appliances for washing and sanitation, can collect drinking and cooking water while the repair is completed.

The road closures extended beyond the roundabout itself. According to Southern Water, Southgate Avenue, Crawley Avenue and part of the A23 — one of the major arterial routes linking Crawley to the wider motorway network — were all affected and closed, adding pressure to local traffic and likely to lengthen journey times for anyone trying to move through the town.

One early riser gave a vivid account of the scene he encountered. Martin Lawrence was making deliveries in the area at about 05:00 BST, before dawn, when he came across what he described as a massive flood. He told BBC Radio Sussex: "I came across this massive flood going across the road. There was a large amount of water going from one side of the roundabout to the other and going into an underpass." He added: "I've never seen so much water in my life."

Water escaping from a pressurised main can escape at very high volumes, and where the failure sits beneath a road it can lift or undermine the surface, flood carriageways and pour into culverts and underpasses. Even a partial blockage of the main, caused by debris or ground movement, can reduce pressure across a wide area, which explains why neighbourhoods some distance from the burst point have also lost supply.

For residents, the practical effects go beyond the tap running dry. Low pressure can stop combi boilers, dishwashers and washing machines from working properly, and homes without a supply may have no drinking, cooking or washing water at all — a particular problem for older residents, young children and anyone with a medical condition that makes hydration urgent.

The incident comes after a run of disruption for the same water company in the region. BBC News has previously reported on a major outage affecting Gatwick Airport, with coverage of water returning to the airport following a large-scale failure, and of a separate incident in which a burst main left the site without supply. Those episodes will likely increase scrutiny of Southern Water's response and of the condition of its network in West Sussex.

Southern Water advised affected customers to follow its published updates, which were being posted through the company website. As repairs progress, pressure is typically restored first to the properties closest to the repair, with the wider network following, though full restoration can take hours after the physical work is finished. Until then, Southern Water said bottled water stations would remain available and residents were urged to keep away from the closed roads and flooded underpass.