Devons Road Estate Without Reliable Water For A Year
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- Residents of nine housing-association blocks on the Devons Road estate in Tower Hamlets have lacked reliable water since December, with supply often only returning after 1am.
- Beatrice Asante had no tap water on Christmas Day and rushed to the local Nisa for bottled water just to cook potatoes; seven months later she still cannot rely on her taps.
- Rajia Begum went three days without any water in July and says her two daughters have become unwell because they refuse to use a toilet they cannot flush.
- Poplar Harca, the landlord, told residents the pressure "remains above the minimum level required under Ofwat's guaranteed standards scheme" but said a statutory leaseholder consultation must run before new pumps can be fitted.
- Razna Begum, 64, says her husband Abdul Hai, bedbound since a stroke in June, may have lost use of his right side due to the stress of eight months without water.
- Tower Hamlets council says water delivery is the landlord's responsibility but confirms it is escalating residents' concerns and arranging bottled water for vulnerable households.
Why it matters: The landlord's own statement — that pressure 'remains above the minimum required under Ofwat's guaranteed standards scheme' — sits beside residents who cannot flush a toilet for days on end, exposing how a regulatory floor can fall below what households actually need to live. At nine blocks in one of east London's most deprived estates, hundreds of disabled, elderly and non-English-speaking households have spent up to a year waiting while the permanent fix sits inside a statutory consultation process.
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