Thousands of homes in Kent are experiencing water supply issues, with intermittent service, low pressure, or no water at all. The disruption stems from a brief shutdown at a South East Water (SEW) treatment works in the Tunbridge Wells area on Thursday morning due to an "instrument failure."
SEW incident manager Robert Anthony-Scorse stated that while the site is now operational, several days of high demand have depleted storage tanks. This has impacted the company's ability to pump water to customers, particularly those on higher ground. The firm estimates around 7,000 properties are affected.
Repairs and replenishment of storage tanks are underway, but SEW anticipates that water supplies may not be fully restored until Sunday evening at the earliest. The company has apologized for the inconvenience and has set up bottled water stations at Tesco Superstore on Pembury Road and Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club. Priority Services Register customers are receiving direct deliveries of bottled water.
This incident follows a challenging period for South East Water. Earlier this week, the company was ordered to pay £30.5 million by industry watchdog Ofwat. This figure includes a £22 million fine for supply failures between 2020 and 2023 that affected over 286,000 people. A second investigation was launched following further interruptions between November and January, which left up to 70,000 homes without water. A third investigation was prompted by a credit rating downgrade in May.
South East Water, which serves approximately 2.3 million customers in the south east of England, warned in its annual report that it requires fresh financing to remain operational. The company has sufficient cash reserves until July 2027 but is in discussions with lenders for a new loan facility to address a £55 million hit from winter outages.