Some of the 73,000 properties affected by the water outage across Southampton, the New Forest, Romsey and Eastleigh could be without water until the weekend.

Around 58,000 homes and businesses are currently without water, after some diversions were put in place following the quality problems at the Testwood water supply works preventing water from leaving the site.

Southern Water has apologised and said it is working hard to restore supplies, but warned the issue might continue until the weekend.

This morning (Thursday), Southern Water said in an update: "Overnight our teams have fixed the problem at the Testwood Water Supply Works and restarted the site.

"We're now filling up the reservoir again with drinking water, ready to restore supply.

"This is a gradual process which must be done carefully and safely, but customers will start to be reconnected later today."

Bottled water has been delivered to care homes and vulnerable customers and bottled water stations have been set up at Asda Totton, Places Leisure Eastleigh and Staplewood Football Development Centre in Marchwood.

"We are so sorry for the disruption this has caused you," the company added.