People in Kent and Sussex asked to use water only for essentials after outages | Water industry
South East Water asked the public to use water for essential purposes only after demand rose 100 million liters above average on Monday.
The company has overseen water cuts to hundreds of homes in Kent and Sussex over the past three days in record temperatures, asking customers to use water only for drinking, washing and cooking.
On Monday, 670 million liters of drinking water were used in the company’s supply area; this was almost 100 million liters more than the average for this time of year. However, the company did not impose a temporary use ban that would prohibit the hose from being used to fill children’s pools, water the garden or wash the car.
South East Water’s operations control officer, Matthew Dean, said extreme temperatures had led to increased demand for water, with storage reservoirs running low in several parts of Kent.
“We had planned this by increasing production in our water treatment works in our supply area and putting extra water into the network, taking into account weather forecasts,” he said.
“Our tanker fleet has been working 24/7 to provide additional water to the network in areas where demand has been very high in recent days.
“However, due to the nature of water supply networks, some customers in elevated locations or at the remote end of the network may experience low pressure or supply interruptions, particularly during times of peak use.
“As the warm weather is planned to continue for several more days, we are asking for help from our customers to keep local taps flowing. We are now asking customers to use water only for essential purposes such as drinking, washing and cooking.”
The email sent to customers asked them to stop using jet washes, hoses and sprinklers, replace paddling pools with water sprayers to keep children cool, and urged customers not to wash their cars. He added: “Think about where you can replace tap water with recycled water. Reuse water from garden baths, showers and sinks… Take action.” “Now please do what you can to reduce all but essential water use like drinking, washing and cooking.”
The call comes as the government is urged to launch a public campaign targeting the whole of society to reduce water use, otherwise the country will face extreme water shortages of 5 billion liters per day by 2055.
The British use much more water than other European countries; Up to 140 liters per day. The government has a target of reducing average personal consumption to 122 liters per day by 2038.
South East Water faced anger from customers three days after nearly 800 properties were left without water at the peak of the outage. Brendan May, a South East customer on
“We needed your help twice when we didn’t have water for days. Go away, stop lining your pockets.”
