Customers urged to only use water when ‘essential’ after thousands hit by outage
South East Water was the first water company to issue a hosepipe ban this summer.
Customers have been urged to only use water for “essential” purposes after thousands of Kent homes were hit by supply issues.
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South East Water has warned its customers in the county that water levels in its drinking storage tanks remain “critically low”.
Supply had been restored to 7,400 properties in Herne Bay, Rough Common and Blean by Tuesday morning, but some 400 homes were still facing low pressure or no water.
A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the situation was “simply not good enough”.
Mike Court, South East Water incident manager, said: “Drinking water supplies have been restored to the 7,400 properties in the Herne Bay, Rough Common and Blean areas of Kent which were experiencing no water or intermittent supplies yesterday.
“However, properties in Herne Bay may experience intermittent supplies later today due to high demand for drinking water in the area as the storage tank which supplies the area remains at a critical level.
“Approximately 400 properties in the Benenden, Cranbrook and Rolvenden areas of Kent are continuing to experience low pressure or no water this morning.
“Water levels within our drinking water storage tank which supplies the area remains critically low.
“We’re therefore urging all customers to continue using water for essential uses only today.”
The Defra spokesperson said: “This situation is simply not good enough.
“South East Water needs to go further and faster to reduce leaks and follow their drought plans to ensure supplies are not disrupted in even the driest of weather.
“Their new leadership must now deliver a step change in performance, where customers’ needs are prioritised and there is a stop to supply outages.
“After years of failure, we have taken swift action to hold water companies to account.
“We have banned unfair water boss bonuses and will establish a new, single regulator with greater powers to drive transparency, helping to rebuild customer trust and protect the environment.”
South East Water was the first water company to issue a hosepipe ban this summer when it barred customers in some parts of Kent from using them on July 3, before restricting its entire network, which includes parts of Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire, about three weeks later.
On Tuesday, the latest hosepipe ban began for all of Wessex Water’s 1.4 million customers across areas in Bath, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.
It was the first ban the company enforced for 50 years, since the long, hot summer of 1976.