We recognise that some customers are facing extreme financial difficulty and we don’t want anyone to worry about paying their water bill. If your circumstances have changed and you’re struggling, perhaps due to redundancy or being self-employed and unable to work, visit our help to pay page to see what help is available to you. We may be able to lower your water bill until you’re back on track.

The Money Advice Service provides wider support on managing money during coronavirus and what you are entitled to.

If you’re a business customer, or any other type of non-household customer, please contact your retailer to discuss your bill. You can find their contact details on your most recent water bill.

Before we turn up to your home, we’ll be calling you to make sure that nobody in your household is ill with coronavirus or self-isolating. If everyone is fine, we’ll continue to do the work as planned but if you have any concerns and prefer us to not attend, please get in touch so we can assess the work required and look to reschedule.

If you or someone in your home is self-isolating, then we will need to assess how urgent the work is. We might be able to reschedule, or we might be able to take additional steps to help protect our colleagues.

If we visit your property, we request that you maintain a safe social distance from our workforce in line with the government's advice to protect both you and our colleagues.

All our employees have been provided with safety equipment and the latest guidance from the Government and Public Health England to minimise the risk and help reduce the spread of coronavirus. If you're worried about having one of our colleagues enter your home, please let us know and we'll rearrange non-urgent appointments.

If we visit your property, we request that you maintain a safe social distance from our workforce in line with the government's advice to protect both you and our colleagues.

It's rare that a Wessex Water employee should need to enter your home, without you knowing beforehand why we're visiting. All staff carry a photographic identification card that can be verified by calling us on 0345 600 4 600. Do not let anyone into your home if you are in any doubt. If you think someone is not a real Wessex Water employee, contact the police immediately.

The same applies if you receive any suspicious phone calls from someone claiming to be from Wessex Water. Please call us on 0345 600 3 600 if you want to check if a call from us is genuine.

If you're self-isolating, there is no need for you to sign up to Priority Services, unless you have a physical impairment or chronic illness and haven't already signed up to our register. Customers who are in the "high risk" group, may wish to sign up to Priority Services so we can provide extra support.

There is no evidence of illness caused by faecal oral transmission, for this or previous similar outbreaks. While evidence exists to show coronavirus is found in the faeces of patients, scientific evidence has shown that its survival in sewage is poor - due to the virus having a lipid based outer envelope.  We can assure you that we are assessing the scientific evidence available to ensure employees are informed about risk. In line with current advice, the most effective form of protection is to maintain high levels of hygiene - such as thoroughly washing hands, using personal protective equipment and maintaining at least 2m distance between yourselves and others.

Based on data from previous outbreaks of related coronaviruses, scientists have confirmed the presence of Covid-19 in sewage is low, therefore risk of transmission through sewage is low.

When we treat drinking water before we supply it to your taps, we add a small amount of chlorine to disinfect the water. The World Health Organisation advises that this way of treating water kills the coronavirus. Scientists have confirmed that drinking water supplies are not a route of transmission and are unaffected. Our drinking water remains wholesome and safe. Person to person spread is the principal way the virus spreads.

It’s rare for anyone’s water supply to be interrupted by a burst pipe but it can occasionally happen. We treat this as emergency work and our technicians re-route the water supply and sometimes use tankers to get everyone’s water back on before we start fixing the damaged section of pipe. We understand that the current coronavirus situation means that people need to be able to wash their hands frequently and that any interruption to supply will be worrying. We always work hard to get water supplies back on as soon as possible and will provide updates on our website and social media channels. If you have a medical condition which means you would struggle to manage without a clean water supply for a short period of time, please contact us to let us know and we will add you to our Priority Services register. We can then provide you with additional help during an interruption to your water supply, such as access to bottled water.

Water consumption is currently running at about 2% more than normal, so we have not seen a significant increase in consumption as a result of additional handwashing. Handwashing does not use large amounts of water compared to running a bath or using a dishwasher, but as an example, if you are on a water meter and you use an additional 10 litres a day for handwashing, the cost for water and sewerage services would be around four pence. To save water while handwashing, turn the tap off as you are lathering soap into your hands and only turn it back on to rinse.

For more ways to save water visit our saving water page. 

If your building has been unoccupied for a while, water within the building’s plumbing system may have become stagnant. This can cause water quality to deteriorate and there are potential risks to health using stagnant water. You should follow Water UK advice on the steps that should be taken to help protect health.

We may be experiencing a higher number of calls during this time so we are sorry if it is taking longer for you to get in touch. You can also contact us online – it's quick and easy to do.