Tower Hamlets Estate Without Running Water for a Year — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Devons Road estate residents on nine blocks in Tower Hamlets have been without reliable running water for up to a year, with the crisis dating back to Christmas Day, when Beatrice Asante's tap ran dry while she was preparing dinner and she had to rush to a Nisa convenience store for bottled water.
- Rajia Begum says her household only receives water around 1am, went three days without any in July, and received just 15 litres of bottled water from the landlord — equal to roughly three toilet flushes — while her two daughters have become unwell after refusing to use the home toilet because flushing is unreliable.
- Razna Begum says eight months of water stress contributed to her husband Abdul Hai's deteriorated condition after his June stroke; he is now mostly bedbound with severe eczema also affecting their youngest son, and she fears he could suffer heatstroke during the current heatwave without reliable hydration.
- Thames Water told Poplar Harca that pressure remains above Ofwat's minimum guaranteed standard, meaning the housing association did not pursue an emergency route and must instead complete a statutory leaseholder consultation before installing new pumps to fix the issue permanently.
- Poplar Harca said it has been supplying bottled water on request and offering alternative washing facilities while progressing the 'permanent solution' through the statutory process; Tower Hamlets council acknowledged the disruption but said water service delivery is the landlord's responsibility, with the mayor's office not responding to residents' emails.
- Many of the estate's residents are impoverished, disabled, or speak English as a second or third language — described as 'among the most marginalised people in the capital' — making the landlord's bottled-water-and-consultation response the de facto safety net for some of London's most vulnerable households.
Why it matters: The landlord's defence rests on Thames Water's finding that pressure meets Ofwat's minimum standard — a technicality letting Poplar Harca pursue a statutory leaseholder consultation rather than emergency repairs. For vulnerable households including a bedbound stroke survivor, the gap between regulatory compliance and basic adequacy has now lasted through a heatwave with no permanent fix in place.
Ask SkimNews
