A water supply failure at Gatwick Airport, United Kingdom left passengers without working toilets and forced bars and restaurants to suspend services.

Passengers reported online that they were unable to get hot drinks, wash their hands or refill water bottles at the airport in Sussex.

The disruption also affected parts of the wider Sussex and Kent area on Sunday, according to water suppliers.

Gatwick said, “A water issue in the Horley area is causing disruption at the airport this morning. The problem is affecting water supply in both terminals and is currently under investigation.

“Bottled water is being made available to passengers and staff across the airport and other contingency measures are being put in place to ensure the welfare of our passengers. We will provide further updates and apologise for any inconvenience to passengers.”

Bottled water was distributed to passengers at the airport, while flights continued to operate normally.

The utility company SES Water said water supplies had been disrupted in parts of the TN11, RH1, RH6 and RH10 postcode areas.

The company said, “We are pleased to provide an update that our Bough Beech water treatment works are back up and running, we now need to treat the water before returning services to normal as quickly as we possibly can. We would like to thank customers and our partners at Gatwick airport for their continued patience, and we are sorry for the inconvenience this is causing. We will update you on the progress of the work as soon as we can.”

One Facebook user expressed frustration over the disruption, writing that they were “gasping for a drink” and “crossing my legs” as Gatwick’s water outage forced the closure of restaurants and most toilets.

The user added, “Not a great start to the holiday.”