The Water Emergency

Yet another emergency thrown at Hastings and who steps up? Yes you – The Community.

Hopefully everyone has access to water or their water is now back on. If you know someone who is still struggling please fill out a help request with them here or give us a ring on 01424 235 290

We thought it would be good to share with you our thoughts about the emergency over the bank holiday weekend.

Similar to the beginning of the pandemic, everybody began to look after the people around them. Opening up their homes for people to wash and fill up containers. Some people  offered a lift to a water station site or a supermarket to get water and others fetched water for people.

This was done within hours of the water being cut off.

HEART put out a shout for volunteers and instantly got a wealth of support whether it was people offering to be drivers or being out in the community.

• People were held up in congested traffic and queues for water

• There seemed to be a lack of co-ordination between larger organsiations and services

• Communications were unclear and became “word of mouth”

• There weren’t enough localised water station sites especially for those that don’t have transport

• There was an explosion of single-use plastic

• There were some large delays in delivery of water to vulnerable people

• There was no check-in to vulnerable people about being delivered water, carrying it, storing it or using it

• We needed more Volunteer Co-ordinators

We are planning an event in the Community Info Hub where we have a debrief about the water emergency and then a further discussion about how we organise ourselves as a community going forward.

We think it’s a real opportunity to look at how we harness our strength as a very co-operative, empathetic and energetic group of people. This will include members of organisations, services and projects but most importantly the community and public of Hastings as a whole.

So watch this space and get involved.