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Thousands left without water due to high demand during heatwave
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.