THAMES Water has faced scathing criticism in the wake of the “largest-ever” water outages in recent history.
Tens of thousands of homes across Guildford, Godalming and Haslemere were left parched after Storm Ciarán last November.
![The area affected by water shortages last November, including Haslemere, Godalming and Guildford](https://www.bordonherald.com/tindle-static/image/2024/02/14/13/11/The%20area%20affected%20by%20water%20shortages%20last%20November%2C%20including%20Haslemere%2C%20Godalming%20and%20Guildford.jpg?trim=39,0,41,0&width=669&height=445&crop=669:445)
The utility giant’s infrastructure spending was slammed as “completely inadequate,” and communication labelled a “disgrace” in a recent meeting of a Guildford Borough Council scrutiny committee.
The outage led to chaos, as some 20,346 homes were cut off for more than three hours, and 14,520 for 12 hours or more hours – including hospitals and schools – with reports of staff and volunteers being verbally abused and spat at.
So far Thames Water has paid out £1.7 million pounds in compensation to those impacted.
But councillors blasted its infrastructure spending as “woeful” and demanded action.