Power failure causes water outage at Gatwick Airport

A power cut left Gatwick Airport without running water for around eight hours on Sunday. The problem started at a water treatment facility in Kent, run by SES Water. Both terminals were affected. Toilets could not be flushed, and hand-washing facilities stopped working or had very low pressure. Restaurants, bars and airport lounges had to close because of the shortage. The airport gave out bottled water to passengers and staff, though some people said they did not receive any. Flights continued to run normally throughout the disruption. Water pressure slowly returned to normal once engineers restored power to the treatment works, though it took several more hours to reach full pressure. Gatwick had a similar water problem in July 2022, when a burst pipe caused low pressure across the site.