A Basildon mum is still waiting for engineers to switch her water supply back on - nearly a week after it suddenly broke down.

Carla Spooner, 23, of Grimston Road, has been forced to live on takeaways and use neighbours and family members' toilets since the taps dried-up during last week's cold snap.

Carla is scared son Jake, five, will fall into a trench dug in the garden by council plumbers.

She said: "The toilet will not flush. It's been a week now and I have got no water coming out of the taps.

"When it happened there was a great puddle of water on and under the kitchen floor. When they tried to sort it out they took some of the kitchen units out and just left them.

"All the drainage is open in the garden so there could be rats around."

A Basildon Council spokesman said: "We were able to repair part of the fault but the real problem lies with the mains supply."

A spokesman for Essex and Suffolk Water, who sent technicians on Friday, said that a leak had been found in the mains water supply.

This was then reported to Basildon Council, who told the company that their own engineers would carry out repair work. A Basildon Council spokesman was unable to confirm this.

Published Thursday, January 16, 2003

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