South East Water outage today: Water firm 'incredibly sorry' as tens of thousands of people still without water in Kent - 'major incident' declared
Tens of thousands of people across South East England are still without water.
South East Water (SEW) blamed the outages on Storm Goretti and cold weather causing burst pipes and power cuts. Linden Kemkaran, leader of Kent County Council (KCC), declared a major incident across the county on Monday morning, saying more households had been impacted in the previous 24 hours.
The issue forced a number of schools in Kent and Sussex to close on the first day of the week. It comes after 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, spent days without any running water, and almost two weeks without drinkable water last month.
Around 25,000 properties across the two counties remain affected by no or intermittent water supplies, South East Water said in an updated statement on Tuesday. It said: “Around 25,000 customers in Kent and Sussex remain affected by no water or intermittent supplies following the recent cold weather and a subsequent breakout of leaks and bursts across Kent and Sussex, which has resulted in our drinking water storage tanks running very low.
“Water supplies to Loose in Maidstone, Blean near Canterbury, Headcorn, West Kingsdown and parts of Tunbridge Wells have been restored. Drinking water to the 16,500 properties in East Grinstead will begin to be restored today with full supplies expected to be restored tomorrow afternoon.
“This is because of the vast network of pipes, which need to be carefully filled to avoid creating bursts which would delay restoration. We are incredibly sorry to all customers and businesses who have been impacted by this and we are doing all we can to restore supplies as soon as possible.”
The water firm adds that it currently has five bottled water stations open 9am until 10pm today at the following locations:
- East Grinstead Sports Club, Saint Hill Road, East Grinstead, RH19 4JU
- Kings Centre, Moat Road, East Grinstead, RH19 3LN
- East Court, College Lane, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 3LT
- Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club, St. Marks Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells TN2 5LS
- Mote Park Leisure Centre, Mote Park, Maidstone, ME15 7RN
The affected areas include:
- Maidstone
- Sevenoaks
- West Sussex and surrounding areas
- Tunbridge Wells
- Canterbury
- Whitstable