Thousands Left Without Water in Crawley After Burst Main Floods Roads and Closes A23

Thousands of households across parts of Crawley woke up on Sunday morning with no running water, after a large main pipe burst and sent sheets of water across the road network. Around 9,000 customers were affected, and several key roads — including a stretch of the A23 — were shut as a result of the flooding.

Southern Water, the regional supplier, confirmed that around 9,000 properties had lost their supply or were experiencing low water pressure, and said it was establishing bottled water stations in the affected communities so that residents without alternative sources had some access to drinking water.

A company spokesperson said repair teams were already at the scene, describing the response as working "as quickly and safely as possible" to fix the burst and restore normal supplies. A second statement repeated that restoring water to customers as quickly as possible remained the firm's "highest priority".

The disruption is not confined to a single street. According to the water company, customers in the Woolborough Road, Holmcroft, Southgate, Tilgate and Furnace Green areas were dealing with either a complete loss of supply or a significant drop in pressure. Those neighbourhoods lie on both sides of the town's busiest southern junctions, meaning thousands of residents across a wide swathe of Crawley were affected simultaneously.

The most severe flooding centred on the Southgate Roundabout, where roads in the immediate area were closed on Sunday morning. Southern Water said Southgate Avenue, Crawley Avenue and part of the A23 were also shut, describing the closures as necessary while crews attended the leak. The A23 is a trunk route carrying traffic north towards the M23 and London, as well as serving Gatwick Airport, so disruption there is likely to have ripple effects well beyond Crawley itself as drivers are diverted through local streets.

Sussex Police said it was dealing with what it described as a "significant" leak, and asked members of the public to stay clear of the area while emergency services worked to manage the situation safely. Officers have not reported any injuries, but the scale of the water — which gathered in an underpass as well as across the carriageway — prompted the warning.

One early witness described the scene in strikingly dramatic terms. Martin Lawrence, who was out making deliveries nearby at about 05:00 BST, said he encountered an enormous volume of water coursing across the road and pouring into an underpass. Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex, he said he had never witnessed so much water in his life — an indication of how early the flooding began and how much of it accumulated before daylight.

For residents, the practical effects go well beyond a lack of drinking water. Households without supply face difficulty with washing, cooking, cleaning and sanitation, while those with low pressure may struggle with showers, boilers and appliances that depend on steady flow. Older residents, families with young children and anyone reliant on powered medical equipment are typically among those most vulnerable during an interruption of this scale, and the bottled water stations are intended as an interim measure while the repair is completed.

The incident comes amid a run of water-supply disruption in the region. The BBC has previously reported on a major outage at Gatwick Airport, including an August report that the airport faced a water outage after a main burst, and earlier coverage of the point at which water returned to the airport after that disruption. Crawley sits immediately adjacent to the airport, and the recurring nature of the incidents has prompted renewed attention to the resilience of the local network.

Burst mains are generally associated with ageing infrastructure, ground movement, temperature-related ground shifts or unexpected pressure changes, and repairs of a substantial main can take a long time because a pipe cannot be safely resealed while it is under pressure. In practice, crews must often shut off supply to work on the damaged section, which is why the scale of affected properties in this case is measured in thousands rather than dozens.

The absence of an estimated completion time means residents have been left without a clear picture of when normal service will resume. Motorists, meanwhile, face the prospect of long delays if the A23 closures remain in place through the day, and the town's local roads are already under pressure as a result.

The story was reported by Stuart Maisner for BBC News South East and had been published only shortly before this account, indicating that the situation was still developing. Authorities, the water company and the police are all expected to issue further updates as the repair progresses, and residents in the affected areas are advised to check for the latest information and to avoid the closed roads around Southgate Roundabout.