Major incident declared after 30,000 homes experiencing water shortages across South East
Nearly 30,000 homes in Sussex and Kent are experiencing water shortages, resulting in Kent County Council declaring a “major incident”.
Ten postcodes, including Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury and Maidstone, are still experiencing problems following the weekend outage, according to alerts issued by South East Water.
The water company said a number of issues were responsible for the water pressure problems, including fallout from Storm Goretti, a water main burst and a power outage at the pump plant.
South East Water said Storm Goretti had affected its ability to purify water at the normal rate, which, combined with water mains bursting due to freezing conditions in Kent and Sussex, had caused drinking water levels to drop.
Collection points for bottled water have been set up and although the water company is working to maintain supply, some customers have been told supplies may not be restored until Tuesday.
South East Water said bottled water stations will close at 10pm today and will be located at Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club (TN2 5LS), Headcorn Aerodrome (TN27 9HX), East Grinstead Sports Club (RH19 4JU) and Queensway Car Park (RH19 1BG).
Linden Kemkaran, leader of Kent County Council, said in a post on
Water supply problems affected several schools in Kent and Sussex, as well as public libraries in East Grinstead, which also closed for the day.
Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead has also had to hold some appointments virtually. Water tankers are carrying additional supplies and measures are being taken to ensure essential services continue at the hospital.
A spokesman said: “The safety and health of our patients and staff remains our priority. “We have had a water tanker on site since Saturday to maintain our supply and our teams have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to minimize any disruption to care.
“While water issues remain, we have been able to continue our essential services and continue to monitor the situation. We want to reassure patients that appointments and surgeries are still ongoing and we will contact you if anything needs to change.”
“Our drinking water storage tanks in the boroughs are running low due to leaks and burst water mains following recent cold weather,” South East Water said in a post on Facebook.
“As a result, around 30,000 properties in parts of Kent and Sussex may be experiencing no water, intermittent water supply or low pressure.
“This includes 16,500 properties in East Grinstead, with the remainder spread across parts of Kent including Tunbridge Wells, Headcorn and intermittently across our Maidstone system.
“We are sorry for the impact this has caused and know how disruptive this is to your daily lives. We are doing our best to stabilize our network and restore supplies to as many customers as possible.”
It comes after 24,000 customers in Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Frant and Eridge experienced loss of water or low pressure due to “water quality issues” in December.
