South East Water Leaves 800 Kent Homes Without Water
About 800 properties in Kent villages lost water on Sunday after supply outages from South East Water. At least 250 homes were still without water on Monday, and a bottled-water station was open again at Challock village hall.
Charing, Challock and Molash
Steve Benton, South East Water’s incident manager, said around 250 properties in the Charing, Challock and Molash areas had been hit by low pressure or no water. He said the problems followed a technical failure at a pumping station near Charing, which left the company struggling to push water to higher ground.
“We are sorry to our customers in parts of Kent who have experienced low pressure or no water intermittently this weekend,” Benton said. South East Water said hot weather and extra demand meant it was pumping far more drinking water than usual, but that its reservoirs were healthy and there was no shortage of water.
Whitstable and Eastbourne
The outages were not limited to one part of the network. South East Water said water supplies to 64 properties in Whitstable were affected overnight after a technical problem with booster pumps, while about 168 homes in Eastbourne, East Sussex, were thought to be affected on Sunday afternoon.
The company’s social media appeal told customers, “Sun’s out. We know the drill: nobody wants a water company telling them to save water when there’s leaks. Fair point.” It added: “Our reservoirs are healthy. There is no shortage of water. But if we all use hoses at Saturday lunchtime, the water pressure drops and homes at the top of the hill can run dry. Spacing out heavy water tasks over the week means everyone on your street keeps their water pressure.”
South East Water pressure
The outages came as South East Water’s senior executives were accused of incompetence by a committee of MPs this month over repeated water outages for tens of thousands of customers. The company also faces a £22m fine from Ofwat over serious disruptions to the water supply over many years.
For customers still affected, the immediate step was the reopened bottled-water station at Challock village hall. The company’s message leaves little room for comfort: even with healthy reservoirs, local pressure failures can still cut supply to homes on higher ground first.
