Flood victims' anger at 'empty water bowsers' » Communities » 24dash.com

People waiting to collect water from bowsers today warned that patience was wearing thin as many were again empty this morning.

More than 1,000 of the mobile water tanks have been sited across Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Cheltenham, where 140,000 homes had been left without running water.

But despite the prime minister's pledge yesterday that there would be more bowsers and water tankers hitting the streets there was little sign of improvement today.

One woman managed to fill just a quarter of a four litre bottle and said she would have to spend most of the day coming back and forth hoping the bowser near her home had been refilled.

Standing in torrential rain on Bristol Road, just a mile from the city centre, she said: "I came down here five times yesterday and there was nothing. My neighbours said they saw a builder's lorry come and take away ten gallons.

"We can't put up with much more of this.

"We've got jobs and we can't spend all day looking for water."

On the Coney Hill estate, residents complained that bowsers had not been filled since Monday and claim local youths had been vandalising the units as soon as they were replenished.

Mother-of-four Jean Goddard, 40, said there was now nowhere locally she could go for water.

"If you're on a low income or a single mum you can't get to the supermarkets for bottled water.

"There's only a couple of bowsers for this entire estate of hundreds of homes and they're empty. Kids keep vandalising them and leaving the taps on or breaking them off. I've heard kids have also been urinating in the bowsers. It's disgusting.

"People are getting very angry because they can't get water. I don't know why Severn Trent can't drop off bottled water at the end of streets."

Ms Goddard said she had been using water from her garden pond to flush the toilet and been filling wheelie bins from a local brook.

Others on the estate also said they'd seen workmen turning up in vans and lorries and draining the bowsers.

Copyright Press Association 2007

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