Thousands of homes in Kent still face water supply issues as demands soars in heatwave

Thousands of homes across Kent were left without water on Friday as South East Water warned that supply would remain intermittent throughout the weekend.

While the heat wave, with temperatures reaching up to 35 degrees in London and some parts of England, caused water shortages due to reduced reservoir supplies, businesses and restaurants in the coastal town of Whitstable were also forced to close.

Around 3,500 customers are currently without water at the seaside, but water is expected to be restored later on Friday. However, the company warned that tap water was “likely to remain intermittent throughout the weekend for all customers in this area.”

Meanwhile in London, Thames Water has been grappling with a mains burst since midnight on Wednesday; Residents living in postcodes SE5, SE15, SE22, SE24, SW2 and SW9 are all struggling with low pressure or lack of water.

Madeline Sherratt, who lives in south-east London, criticized Thames Water for failing to provide spare supplies or emergency supplies during the record-breaking heatwave.

he said Independent: “I haven’t been able to drink water from my tap for more than 24 hours.

“Last night I took a taxi to my friends to take a shower and after cooking we can’t even do the dishes! It’s absolute misery to be honest but it’s so much worse for those who have to take medication and are less capable than us.”

“I’m not sure how a private utility that charges enormous prices can leave residents without supplies in this heat.”

Thames Water has been approached for comment.

Drinking water storage tanks also reached critical levels in Kent, affecting 200 customers in Cranbrook. Around 8,700 homes in Ulcombe, Coxheath, Loose, Headcorn and Herne Bay are experiencing low pressure or intermittent water supply.

For residents of Challock, Charing and Molash villages, homes were without water overnight as the company waited for levels in the reservoir to be high enough to allow boosters to be restarted.

A bottled water station has opened at Challock Village Hall as nearly 700 properties continue to deal with low pressure.

Pictures from Whitstable on Thursday show traffic and queues of people queuing at the bottled water collection point at Sainsbury’s near the Kent town on Thursday; The water company said 8,000 customers were without water supply.

It comes as the firm urged customers to only use water for essential purposes such as drinking, washing and cooking, as supply issues persist from the hot bank holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, Kent County Council has announced it will increase public scrutiny of water supply, quality and infrastructure in the county and “fed up” residents following a series of water cuts in recent days.

Mark Stubbs, head chef at Wheelers Oyster Bar on Whitstable’s high street, said the water outage was “a bit of a shock” and the restaurant had to close on Thursday, canceling reservations and sending staff home.

The restaurant receives fresh stock on Thursdays, but “I can’t sell it,” he added, as health and safety rules mean food outlets cannot open without running water for hygiene reasons.

“Staff had to be sent home, which costs a lot of money,” the chief said.

“It’s a time when the high street needs to improve and the half-term break is nice.

“The hospitality industry will be hit very hard again.”

It was stated on social media that Playhouse Theatre, Wetherspoons, Nomad Pizza and other restaurants and bars were closed.

One local resident said: “This can’t happen every time the weather gets warmer, it never happened 2 years ago, so what happened? Selling the storage tank in Borstall Hill didn’t work. So why are we having hot weather now, for longer? Time SE Water has been disbanded.”

Earlier this month South East Water’s chief executive David Hinton announced plans to resign just a week after group chief executive Chris Train resigned following a scathing report from MPs who said they had “no confidence” in the company’s leadership.

The review comes after thousands of customers were unable to access running water, shower or flush toilets during outages between November and January.

Dry Wells Action, a consumer action group based in Tunbridge Wells, said the latest cuts showed South East Water had “learned nothing from the disastrous Tunbridge Wells water crisis”.

Group chairman Jonathan Hawker said: “How does South East Water get the basics of crisis response so wrong?

“Customers were promised that lessons would be learned. These latest failures have shown once again that everything is just talk and not action. The license of this water monopoly, which cannot provide, should definitely be cancelled.”

Steve Benton, South East Water’s incident manager, said: “We are starting to see tap water supplies returning to some customers across the city, although some are still experiencing water supply issues due to incredibly high demand during this heatwave.

“Yesterday (Thursday, May 28) we pumped 619 million liters of water to our customers in our region. This continues to be above the average for this time of year. On some days during this period of high demand, we treated and pumped approximately 100 million liters more than the daily average for May.

“We are doing everything we can to get treated water into our storage reservoirs, including using our tankers to support the network and ensuring all existing treatment works are operating at full capacity. However, some customers will continue to have intermittent water supplies until these levels are restored. This means water may be on and off throughout the day.”

Nick Price, head of water resources at South East Water, said: “All of our raw water supplies are now in a healthy position as we move towards the spring and summer months.

“Winter rainfall was above the long-term average across our supply area and was particularly wet in our Sussex and West regions. In contrast, we are monitoring the situation closely as March was drier than average and April was particularly dry, with catchments in Kent receiving only 8 per cent of the expected rainfall for the month.

“This weekend saw the first heatwave of the year and the hottest May day in history. As expected, demand for water has increased.”

He added that the water main is “like a highway” and could grind to a halt if everyone used it “at once.”

“This time of year we typically see demand for water begin to increase and we ask our customers to only use water for essential uses such as drinking, cooking and washing,” he said.