A man has been left 'in agony' after drinking tap water when the Southern Water outage came to an end.

The fault in the water company's network led to 58,000 properties being left waterless, including that of Kai and Louise Harrington in Ringwood Drive, North Baddesley.

When the water came back on again on Thursday evening at 7pm, Kai decided to drink from the taps while Louise and their children stayed on bottled water. 

Louise, 42, said: "My husband has been in agony all night with stomach cramps. He’s still in bed."

READ MORE: Water supply restored to thousands of homes

A Southern Water tanker was sent to Southampton General Hospital (Image: Southern Water) She explained that there was no difference in what the entire family consumed in terms of food and drink except the water they drank.

"At no point did Southern Water say that this water wasn’t suitable for drinking," said Louise. "We all ate and drank the same things."

She added: "They have not warned anybody about the water, that’s what makes me angry."

Southern Water put out a statement on their website on Thursday afternoon warning residents the water could be discoloured or have a chlorine smell or taste when it returns.

When contacted about the incident, a spokesperson for Southern Water said they would investigate: "To reassure you water is tested before it goes into customers’ taps. There are very clear and strict standards water must meet – details on this are here Our Drinking Water Standards - Southern Water."

He explained that Southern Water would look into the issue and release a more complete statement in the future.

A statement from the company confirmed all properties had supply restored at full pressure just before 2am this morning. 

Managing director Tim McMahon said: “We are sorry for the disruption caused to customers over the last two days, and would like to thank them for their patience as we worked to restore supply.

“We also apologise to those customers on the Priority Services Register who had to wait an unacceptably long time to receive their water deliveries.

“We’ll review this incident carefully and learn the lessons to improve our processes.”

Homes in Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Totton and parts of the New Forest experienced a loss of water or low pressure after the issue arose on Wednesday.

Some 73,000 properties were affected by the water outage across Southampton, the New Forest, Romsey and Eastleigh.