Frustration mounts over Kent water supply disruption

Residents have expressed anger as water supply issues cause misery for thousands of people across Kent during soaring temperatures.

Greg Lawrence from Whitstable, who was queuing at the Herne Bay bottle water station, told BBC Radio Kent it was "very frustrating" to have supply issues during the hot weather.

"We've had a wet May and several days of heat, and this crisis happens," he added.

"We've had low pressure on Tuesday evening and I woke up today without water. We can't do washing or flush the toilet, it's not nice especially in this heat.

He added he did not have "confidence" in SEW to resolve the problem soon, adding the company "didn't seem to have any contingency plans for extreme weather".

"We had to wait in the queue for nearly one hour for them to open and there was one pallet of water left."

Lawrence believed the nationalisation of water companies could be the answer to improved services.

Areas impacted include the towns of Maidstone, Ashford, Herne Bay, Whitstable, and several Kent villages.

Jeff Higgins, a jam maker for the Wooden Spoon in Wye, told Radio Kent that the company has not been able to make any jam since Monday.

"Our cooking vessels use steam and the alternative, which is gas cooking, is no good because we can't wash the pans afterwards," he said.

Higgins added the pasteurisation process for the jam was also water-based.

He told the BBC the supply disruption has not only impacted the business' finances, but it was also "frustrating".

"It has been extremely hot for a few days, and it seems to be the pumping stations that are breaking down [due to the extra demand]," he said.

"The infrastructure does really need fixing."

Sir Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay, said the ongoing disruptions were "unacceptable".

"There is no excuse for this, but there are reasons why disruptions keep happening," he said.

He said the reasons included "lack of investment in infrastructure".

"There are plans to build a reservoir in Broad Oak, but we need solutions now," he added.

SEW said storage reservoirs had reached critical levels in Whitstable and Herne Bay.

The company said on Tuesday alone, it had pumped 660 million litres of water to customers across the region - more than 100 million litres more than the average for a day.

Areas that are experiencing supply issues in Kent as of 21:00 BST on Wednesday include:

On Wednesday, the following areas in Sussex faced disruption, though they were not listed as ongoing interruptions on the SEW network as of 21:00 BST.

Regulator Ofwat recently proposed fining SEW £22m over issues affecting 286,000 people in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023.

Between November and December, some 24,000 SEW customers had no water supply or low pressure following a plant failure, which led to a boil water notice for several days.

Weeks later, up to 30,000 households faced days of water chaos - which SEW blamed on cold weather and Storm Goretti.