Tap water in thousands of homes in Wandsworth and Croydon turns yellow

The water in thousands of homes in Wimbledon, Tooting, Mitcham, and Croydon has turned yellow.

From around 9am this morning, water came out of taps across the city discoloured – with many residents taking to social media to share their photos.

Thames Water said that the yellowing colour came from sediment in the pipes that were disturbed by maintenance works, and that the off-colour water is harmless.

They are currently working to fix the problem.

The affected areas are thought to be SW17, SW18, SW19, SW20, CR0 and CR4.

Thames Water provided an update on their website saying: “Our engineers are still working in SW17 to flush some discoloured water from our pipe network, which has affected the supplies of a number of customers in this post code and the surrounding area.

“We’re really sorry if you’ve among been impacted by this.

“The issue was caused by maintenance work, which disturbed some naturally occurring sediments within the pipes. This led to the odourless discolouration which has affected some customers’ supplies.

“Although drinking the water should be harmless, we know it looks unpleasant and wouldn’t expect people to drink it until supplies are clear again – which we’re working to achieve as quickly as possible.

“If you’d like to know more, there’s further information on our water quality pages.

“We realise how inconvenient this is and are grateful for your patience while we work to fix this.

“We’ll be updating you here as soon as we have more information to share.”

Pictured top: Discoloured water in a sink in Wimbledon town centre. Photo credit Mark Geoghegan @GeogheganMC