Water supply expected to return to hundreds of homes

South East Water (SEW) says it expects hundreds of homes in Kent to have their full water supply restored on Monday morning, after more than a week of disruption.

The latest issues, which affected several villages around Maidstone over the weekend, were blamed on an electrical fault at a treatment works.

On Sunday, about 800 customers in Linton were still experiencing low pressure or no water, while about 320 properties in the Bidborough area of Tunbridge Wells have been suffering supply issues since Wednesday.

In addition, a burst main in the early hours in Langley means some residents there are currently experiencing an intermittent service.

On Monday, a SEW spokesperson said repairs in Broomfield had been completed and the company was "slowly returning the water to the pipework".

"This has to be done in a controlled way to prevent any further issues," they said.

"It hopefully won't be too much longer until your supplies are fully restored."

Hours earlier, SEW had forecasted "a full restoration" overnight of water supplies to customers in the Bidborough area.

On Monday morning, SEW said although water had returned for a majority of the affected properties in the Harrietsham area, a leak on a nearby water main meant some still had issues.

This is despite the company saying on Sunday night it was working on the repair and expected "full restoration of supplies to impacted customers overnight".

SEW said it was working to complete the repair "as soon as possible".

Carlie Chase lives in Harrietsham and is concerned her children's school will have to close due to the unpredictable supply.

"I'm terrified that this will become the norm," she said.

"I'm worried that my children will be sent home from school today due to the water problems, and keeping their school uniform clean so far has been a nightmare."

Sarah Bryan manages the town's Sunrise Day Nursery and says they currently have no water.

"We're hoping we will soon though, which is why we haven't closed as yet," she said.

"But it's so inconvenient for working parents and SEW should do better.

"It's ridiculous that this hasn't been sorted."

Resident John Denton added: "These water executives earn hundreds of thousands of pounds, but they can't even do the basics and keep water flowing out of our taps."

SEW apologised to its customers and previously attributed problems on a series of leaks across its network caused by freezing temperatures, followed by the effects of Storm Goretti.

The company said high volumes of rain had rendered some treatment works unable to properly process water.

Neighbouring water company Southern Water also faced similar problems, and, as it looked to maintain water to its customers, it stopped its normal bulk water supply to parts of the SEW network.

Last week's disruptions saw some 30,000 people in Sussex and Kent affected, which resulted in a major incident being declared.

Bottled water stations had to be set up in various locations, while tankers were used to inject water directly into the network while its storage tanks were still being replenished.

On Thursday, water regulator Ofwat launched a first-of-its-kind investigation over repeated water supply failures in the two counties.

It will look at whether SEW breached its licence around customer care.

David Hinton, the boss of SEW, was also recalled to parliament to face another round of questions from select committee MPs.

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