Why is South East Water under so much pressure now?

The latest water crisis in Kent has prompted Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin to demand that South East Water (SEW) chief executive resign, adding: "The latest incident is in a long line of problems for which the company is responsible."

Beginning on Saturday, up to 24,000 customers in Tunbridge Wells and Pembury, in Kent, and Frant and Eridge, in East Sussex, experienced loss of water.

It is not the first time residents in the area have experienced no water for several days; back in July, 3,000 households in Kent were left without water for six days.

SEW, which has revised its estimates of when supplies would return multiple times, has apologised to customers.

In January, a power cut caused a shutdown of the company's water treatment works, which supplies 5,000 households in Sevenoaks, Hildenborough, Bidborough and Tonbridge.

It took six days to restore water to a majority of properties.

Meanwhile, in July 2023, areas including Crowborough, Wadhurst, Biddenden and Staplehurst experienced water supply issues due to strong demand over the summer.

The company had been investigated by Ofwat over possible failures in maintaining supplies to households and was named the "worst performer for water supply interruptions" in England and Wales.

The latest incident has prompted Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey to call for the Army to deal with the crisis.

SEW blamed a "bad chemical batch" at its Pembury Water Treatment Works as the cause of the disruption.

However, the site has previously been problematic for the company.

Last autumn, the Drinking Water Inspectorate said there was "significant risk of supplying water" from the site.

SEW said it was continuing to investigate what caused water quality to drop at the site.

Three years ago, thousands of residents in Tunbridge Wells also experienced supply issues when freezing weather caused pipes to burst over the Christmas period.

Speaking to Radio 4 on Monday, Martin said residents were "utterly furious" over the company's handling of the situation.

The MP has also criticised the company's "poor communication", while Tanya Sefton, customers services director for SEW, told the programme that the firm "thanked" Martin for his advice on where to set up bottle stations.

"Lessons are always learnt in any incident," she added.

SEW has also missed multiple deadlines it set itself for water to return to customers.

Despite the company's updates regarding when the problems would be resolved, about 14,000 customers were still without supplies on Tuesday night.

When asked about why the company had missed its own deadlines, a spokesperson responded: "Unfortunately due to the rapidly moving nature of this incident, the timings for the return of water supplies have changed over the last five days."

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