A New Forest mum who was forced to clean her disabled son's soiled sheets with bottled water due to an outage has slammed Southern Water for not helping them in their time of need.

After more than two days of dry taps and misery for 18,000 homes in the Waterside area of the New Forest, Southern Water finally got the supply back yesterday morning.

But for Diane Diamond, who cares for her 34-year-old son James, this was not good enough.

READ MORE: Water 'restored' after flooding shut Southern Water plant

She was not delivered bottled water despite being on the supplier's priority list - for which Southern Water said it was 'extremely sorry' and would launch a 'full investigation'.

The 67-year-old from Dibden Purlieu called for an overhaul of how the water company deals with its disabled and vulnerable customers, particularly in times of crisis.

She said: “The response from Southern Water has been terrible. I’ve tried to get some support from them for days – even though James is on the Vulnerable list, we have had no water deliveries or support.

“They need a total review of their disabled procedure as vulnerable residents are falling through the cracks and being left to fend for themselves.

“I’m up to my eyeballs in washing everywhere and have had to clean James using baby wipes.

“My water bill is £2000 a year – We should not be fighting to get support.

“I'll never take tap water for granted again.”

The outage began in the wake of Storm Ciaran, which flooded the River Test and overwhelmed the Testwood water processing plant - forcing Southern Water to shut it down on Thursday night.

Bottled water stations were set up across the area - but residents on the priority register were meant to receive deliveries of bottled water.

Unable to reach Southern Water on the line for priority customers, Diane was forced to travel to the nearest station at Applemore Leisure Centre and wheel them home to wash James' sheets.

She had to send her son to an Emergency Care Centre for a week as she could not continue to care for him without water at home.

Other residents were also displeased with Southern Water's response to the incident.

Kirstie Harvey, 51, from Hythe, said: “The response has been poor from Southern Water. They have given us no indication of how long we might have gone without water.

“Trying to reach them is completely pointless as there is never anyone to answer the phone.

“I hope they will review their policy to stop this happening again.”

In response to Diane's claim, a spokesperson for Southern Water said: "We’re extremely sorry that Mrs Diamond and her son did not receive the service they deserve during the recent water supply issues.

“We delivered bottled water to thousands of customers on our priority services register during the recent water supply issues in Hampshire, but it is unacceptable that the process has broken down for Mrs Diamond.

“We will be carrying out a full investigation to understand what happened and make the changes necessary to improve our services to priority customers."