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Thousands left without water due to high demand during heatwave
The company said 18,000 households were affected as emergency water stations opened and customers were urged to use water only for essentials.
- Thousands of households across Kent, including Whitstable and Herne Bay, face severe water supply disruption as South East Water reported local storage reservoirs reached a "critical level" amid a heatwave.
- Matthew Dean, head of operations control at South East Water, cited "extremely high demand" for tap water during hot weather, causing stored water reservoirs to run dangerously low and resulting in intermittent supply issues.
- Residents reported "huge queues" at bottled water stations, including one at Sainsbury's in Altira Business Park, Broomfield. Greg Lawrence from Whitstable called the situation "very frustrating," noting he waited nearly one hour for supplies.
- Kent County Council announced a new "strategic partnership" to oversee water resilience following the outages. Council leader Linden Kemkaran stated the authority has a "responsibility to stand up for Kent" amid resident frustration.
- Regulator Ofwat recently proposed fining SEW £22m over past failures affecting 286,000 people. Chief executive David Hinton and chairman Chris Train departed in recent weeks after MPs declared they had "no confidence" in leadership.
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South East Water warns supply could be cut to thousands of homes as reservoirs run dry amid 'extremely high demand'
South East Water has warned supplies could be cut to its 18,000 homes across Kent after suffering from "extremely high demand" over the last few days.
·London, United Kingdom
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources8
Leaning Left1Leaning Right2Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution62% Center
Bias Distribution
- 62% of the sources are Center
62% Center
13%
C 62%
R 25%
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