A recently widowed pensioner from Welling who has lived in her council house for nearly 40 years has described her anger at being left without running water for six weeks.

Pamela Morgan, 72, has lived in Dryden Road for 38 years. She lives there alone after her husband died five months ago.

A huge water leak in her sink flooded the downstairs of her house in August, causing the floors to “bubble up”.

After she reported the problem to Bexley Council, she was shocked to find her name “was not on the list” for eligible repairs.

Luckily, her son Michael is a trained plumber and was on hand to turn the water supply off to stop the flooding.

When workmen finally came to Mrs Morgan’s house to fix the pipe, Mrs Morgan claims the job was merely a “patch-up” which then burst again – on two occasions.

While Mrs Morgan awaits a proper repair job on her water pipe, she has been left completely without running water, and has been living on deliveries of bottled water.

“Nothing is getting done. I have to keep begging for water all the time,” she told News Shopper.

“I had 36 litres delivered at 8pm last night and I had been waiting for hours.

“I didn’t have a drink all day. I was so thirsty.”

Although Mrs Morgan gets given 36 litres of water at a time, she said this is often not enough.

“It’s surprising what you need your water for,” she said, adding she needs to pour four litres of water into the toilet tank to get it to flush.

And as she waits for her water supply to return, Mrs Morgan is also concerned about her health.

“I have asthma, and I’ve recently had an infection and I’m putting it all down to this.

“My daughter took me away for a week but it has still not helped.”

A Bexley Council spokeswoman said: “We are sorry to hear of the recent difficulties Mrs Morgan has been experiencing.

“There was some confusion when officers attended Mrs Morgan’s property, for which we have apologised. This was because maintenance of the property has only recently become our responsibility.

“Early attempts to fix the leak with the least disruption to Mrs Morgan were not successful and shortly afterwards we authorised further works to replace the mains pipe completely.

“Since the first leak and repair we have continued to offer Mrs Morgan temporary accommodation, which she has refused. We arranged for bottled water to be delivered to her.

“A water main has now been located and a temporary water supply has been installed for use while works are being carried out.

“The works involve 30 metres of excavations. This work was delayed while Mrs Morgan was away, because we could not gain access, but it has since restarted.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation and assessing the water damage to Mrs Morgan’s property.”

Mrs Morgan said although the council did offer her temporary housing, she did not want to leave her house of 38 years.

"I have just lost my husband, I just didn't want to leave my house. I have been in turmoil and I wanted to stay here.

"I have got this feeling and I just don't want to leave," she told News Shopper.