RESIDENTS living on Britain's "worst street" have claimed they never have any water because it's dug up every other week.
London Road in Swanscombe, Kent, has been subject to 73 permits for construction work in the last four-and-a-half years.
In this time, there have also been 18 water main repairs on a five-mile stretch of the street, leaving residents frustrated.
People living in the surrounding area say they regularly suffer with low water pressure as the old cast-iron pipes are prone to bursting.
They've also reported waking up to no water at all during the weekend of this summer's heatwave.
As a result of the problems, residents are now petitioning for Thames Water to improve their service, reports Kent Online.
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Swanscombe councillor Emma Ben Moussa launched the petition, and said the troubles with the water have been constant for the past two years, but still fairly sporadic until three weeks ago.
Cllr Moussa said that in one week alone there were four new leaks in four separate streets leading to disrupted water supplies to homes.
One man, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "It's always going to be frustrating when there's a water outage during heatwave conditions, but I think it was made more frustrating by the fact that the water company's promised updates on the website but the live tracking had no record of the incident in our area."
And Moussa herself has been affected, saying that she had to travel to her mother's house when she was left with no supply.
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She said: "People were genuinely struggling without water at some of the hottest temperatures on record.
"This is unacceptable for residents, and an unacceptable performance from Thames Water.
"It is a criminal waste of water when the same companies are telling us we need to prepare for drought conditions.
"If they can't provide the service they shouldn't have the monopoly over the water. I've lost faith in Thames Water and Swanscombe is out of patience."
It's a constant battle it seems. The water pressure can drop, causing my shower pressure to drop, I noticed.
Charles Street resident Liz Edgar said she has reported the leak on her road to Thames Water twice over the course of the past two months and has received no response.
The grandmother-of-four added: "It's a constant battle it seems. The water pressure can drop, causing my shower pressure to drop, I noticed."
And the retired office manager described another leak on London Road as "absolutely shocking, gushing onto the road, causing more havoc".
A Thames Water spokesman said of the latest problems: "Following reports of a leak, our engineers visited the site on June 6 to investigate.
"They located a Thames Water stop valve which they tried to fix on the day.
"However they found they need to excavate and dig further down into the area so they can access the necessary pipework to stop the flow of water and fix the leak. This work will be scheduled in.
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"We know it’s not acceptable to be losing so much precious water and we’re doing something about it. It’s not going to be quick, but we’re making progress and we’ve met our target for the last two years."
MP Gareth Johnson said he had been in contact with Thames Water for the past month and said that he is "frustrated" with the way they have handled the problems.
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