Life with and without water

For Gloucestershire, July was unlike any other months and unlike any other Julys. It was marked by several waves of extremely stormy weather which caused serious flooding of Gloucestershire’s rivers. The river Chelt, which in normal circumstances takes the form of a small stream running through Cheltenham parks, burst its banks twice within two weeks, submerging various parts of Cheltenham. Friday, 20th July, Cheltenham witnessed some of the worst weather in years, when rain poured down from the sky non-stop for over 24 hours. Within that time more rain fell on Gloucestershire than usually does at this time of the year over 3 months. Sandford Park and the bottom of the Old Bath Road, Whaddon, Hester’s Way, Charlton Kings and many other areas in the river Chelt’s path, have been affected.

For Gloucester and Tewkesbury, the situation was even worse. The river Severn flooded large areas around Gloucester Docks as well as most of the historical town of Tewkesbury, where the flood water contaminated the water treatment plant, which supplied drinking water to Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury. As a result of that, residents of these towns as well as nearby villages had to do without tap water, which had been cut off. Many Cheltenham areas were without tap water since Monday, 23rd July.

The greatest fear though was that Walham power station on the outskirts of Gloucester could have been flooded which would have meant that hundreds of thousands of Gloucestershire’s residents would have been left without power. The emergency services and armed forces fought for three days to save the substation. As the Severn peaked, the waters stopped 2in short of breaching the flood defences. Cheltenham Racecourse became the army headquarters which moved in to help with the distribution of bottled water.

Most of Gloucestershire’s events, including many taking place in Cheltenham, had to be cancelled or postponed. Cheltenham Cricket Festival, first staged in 1872, had to be cancelled, as well as The Open Air Art Exhibition in the Imperial Gardens. The Everyman Theatre also cancelled its performances and closed, as well as the Cineworld cinema in The Brewery, and the library. Pubs and nightclubs have had to close due to health and safety reasons, and many shops and services stayed closed as without water or even power they were unable to operate.

More bad weather for Cheltenham came today, just as residents of Cheltenham were trying to come to terms with life without running water. Bowsers had been distributed in residential areas, however they were unable to satisfy the demand for drinking water. But there was some good news for Cheltenham residents today: better weather is on the way and with that the prospect of reconnecting the running water.