Thousands of households in Kent and Sussex remain without water, have low pressure or intermittent supplies - here is the latest
"My children haven't had a shower at home for a week" says one woman who hasn't been able to flush her toilet or wash her dishes
The government has described the situation as "completely unacceptable"
Some schools have been closed, with areas affected including East Grinstead and parts of Tunbridge Wells
Kent County Council has declared a major incident as South East Water blames the recent cold weather and a subsequent breakout of leaks and bursts
Have you been affected? Get in touch here, external
Listen to updates throughout the day on BBC Radio Kent and Radio Sussex and watch BBC South East Today on iPlayer
'The whole of the town in East Grinstead was in gridlock,' one woman tells the BBC
Our live coverage of the water supply issues which have been affecting residents and businesses in parts of Kent and Sussex is ending for the day.
Thank you for reading our live feed.
You can read the latest information here.
Image source, Getty ImagesThere are four bottled water stations which will remain open until 22:00 BST.
Three are in East Grinstead. They are located in:
The bottled water station at St Marks Recreation Ground, in Tunbridge Wells, has also reopened. It will remain open until 22:00.
The bottled water station at Headcorn Aerodrome has now closed.
Nicola Higgins is the Head of Commercial Development at South East Water
Water supply issues in East Grinstead and Tunbridge Wells should be resolved by the middle of the week, South East Water (SEW) has said.
East Grinstead had been affected by water quality issues after Storm Goretti and the firm had struggled with water treatment processes, Nicola Higgins, head of commercial development, said.
Tunbridge Wells had been hit by bursts and leaks after freezing conditions.
In both towns, Higgins said the firm was "looking to resolve and get people back fully supplied by the middle of the week".
She added that the situation in a third area - Loose, Headcorn and Hollingbourne - had improved, but the area relied on receiving a consistent bulk supply from a neighbouring water company, and it had stopped being provided in the early hour of Saturday.
She said that bottled water stations would stay open until the company was able to "restore normal services".
Image source, Getty ImagesSouth East Water said it had requested £300m of additional funding
"This truly isn't the level of service we want to provide," Nicola Higgins, head of commercial development at South East Water (SEW) has said.
Higgins said there had been "a five-fold increase" in leaks and bursts, which she described as "relatively unprecedented".
The company needed to work on its resilience, she said, but she added it also faced issues that were not within its control, such as weather conditions.
Higgins revealed the firm had requested £300m of additional funding to tackle its resilience issues.
"We have experienced challenges," she said, "but I do also think that we are doing everything that we possibly can."
Image source, Getty ImagesA emergency bottled water distribution centre in East Grinstead
Around 10 schools in Sussex and 11 in Kent were closed today, with several more partially closed.
How do I know if my child's school is closed on Tuesday?
Most councils list school closures in their area on their websites - you can see schools in Kent, external, East Sussex, external and West Sussex, external here.
Local media and radio stations also often share lists of school closures throughout the morning.
What will my child's school do when it is closed?
Schools will try to give parents as much notice as possible about a potential closure.
If it does close, then the Department for Education requires that a school should consider moving to remote learning until it is able to reopen.
Can I get time off work to look after my children?
The Employment Rights Act allows parents to take time off work "because of the unexpected disruption or termination of arrangements for the care of a dependent".
But, this does not mean that the parent will definitely be paid for the time off work - whether this is the case will depend on the employers' policies.
Jacob Phillips
Live reporter
Image source, PA MediaNot everybody has been able to collect water from hand out stations
“We seem to have water now - although it’s coming out brown,” East Sussex resident Andrew Till said.
He is not drinking the water yet at his home in Chelwood Gate, a village near the centre of the disruption in Sussex.
Till and his family have had water issues since Saturday morning and have been using a water butt to flush toilets.
He ended up buying his own bottled water after facing an hour-long wait at a water station on Sunday.
“We have a massive pond in the garden so I'm tempted to look into a pump and filter for when this happens,” he told me.
Meanwhile, Steven Mann noticed he had no water this morning while getting his two children ready for school.
Mann, who lives in the village of Tyler Hill just outside Canterbury, said there has been “absolutely no communication” from South East Water.
He bought his own water after struggling to find any information about water stations nearby.
We have taken another look at the list of areas without water. There are some new incidents, but the good news is some earlier alerts are no longer on the list.
The ones that appear to have been dealt with cover part of Tunbridge Wells, Penshurst, Benenden, areas of Canterbury and Whitstable, plus alerts in Aldershot, Hampshire, and Bracknell in Berkshire.
Postcodes affected, listed on South East Water's (SEW) website, external, are as follows:
Kent
SEW has issued a general update for Tunbridge Wells and said its bottled water station at St Marks Recreation Ground has reopened and would stay open until 22:00 GMT.
Earlier, the firm said customers were without water “earlier than planned”, because levels in the reservoir did not regain as expected. It said the supply was unlikely to return until Tuesday and would stay intermittent.
ME13 9AJ - Brickfield Lane, Boughton-under-Blean, Faversham: The firm apologised to those with no water or low pressure after a burst main and said it was trying to fix it.
ME17 1XD - Hollingbourne, Headcorn, Ulcombe, Kingswood, Sutton Valence and surrounding areas: SEW warned of intermittent supplies as reservoir levels regained storage. A bottled water station at Headcorn Aerodrome has closed.
TN15 6TA - Pilgrims Way, Kemsing, Sevenoaks: SEW has said there are low levels at a reservoir which has meant it is unable to pump water.
TN15 0PY - Yopps Green, Plaxtol, Sevenoaks: The company said it had pressure issues at a site and could not pump water.
ME15 9UD - Loose and surrounding areas: SEW said water storage reservoirs were running low.
CT2 9AA - Harbledown, Blean, Canterbury: Customers have been told pressure issues at a plant mean water cannot be pumped.
ME14 4PA - Ware Street, Bearsted, Maidstone: The company has said a repair needs to be completed and the water main may need to be turned off later.
Sussex
RH15 9TD - Royal George Road, Burgess Hill: The company said it was working around the clock to fix a burst main.
RH19 1AW - East Grinstead and surrounding areas: SEW has apologised to customers who have had no water or intermittent supply over the weekend. It said it was working hard to restore supplies but described it as “complex”. The company said it was unable to provide an estimated time of when water will be restored. Bottled water stations remain open until 22:00 GMT.
Helen Catt
Political editor, BBC South East
Image source, Getty ImagesSwathes of Kent and Sussex are facing issues with no water or low pressure
Water Minister Emma Hardy has said she does not expect the situation to be resolved in the next 24 hours.
Areas facing no water or low water pressure stretch across Kent and Sussex, with South East Water tackling pumping issues, burst mains and low reservoir levels.
Hardy told the BBC she would be asking water regulator Ofwat to look at whether South East Water was meeting its obligations.
According to the Ofwat website, external, the watchdog is there to "make sure water companies provide the best service to customers and communities, improve the environment, and make sure our water supplies are secure for future generations".
Several bottled water distribution points are open today, although one had to temporarily close earlier due to low supplies. It has since reopened.
As a reminder, there are five distribution points open until 22:00 GMT. You can find them in our previous post.
Image source, PA MediaWater distribution centres have been set up around Kent and Sussex for houses without water
Image source, PA MediaThere are still multiple ongoing interruptions to South East Water's network
Image source, PA MediaIf you are without your mains supply, South East Water says you are entitled to 10 litres of bottled water every 24 hours, and you can also fill up tanks free of charge for livestock in livestock fill points
Image source, Charmain Powell"This is taking Dry January to a whole new level", Charmain Powell, who runs the Portobello Inn in Sevenoaks, Kent, alongside her husband Steve, said.
They have had to close today as they have no running water, and South East Water was unable to give them an update on when it would be resolved.
"January is a tough month for all pubs," she said.
"We really need as much trade as possible this time of year and having to turn customers away is hard.
"But it's just not possible to operate without water."
Image source, Queen Victoria Hospital NHS trustWater tankers have been at a hospital in West Sussex since Saturday to keep supplies going.
Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead has been able to continue essential services and is continuing to review the situation while water issues continue, according to a spokeswoman for the trust.
She said: "The safety and wellbeing of our patients and staff remains our priority. Our teams are working tirelessly behind the scenes to minimise any disruption to care.
"We would like to assure patients that appointments and surgeries are still taking place and should anything need to change we will contact you."
The trust said a "small number" of outpatient appointments had been postponed and were being rescheduled as a priority.
Image source, Queen Victoria Hospital NHS trust
Image source, Getty ImagesPeople were left without water in areas across Kent and Sussex, particularly Tunbridge Wells and East Grinstead
The leader of Maidstone Borough Council has called for the "urgent" renationalisation of water companies after people in the town were left without fresh water for more than 48 hours.
Green Party councillor Stuart Jeffery said thousands of people had faced a tough weekend.
He said: “Water stopped flowing early on Saturday morning and people were without fresh water for 48 hours, and some places still have no water. This is unacceptable.
“When you combine the supply failures of South East Water with the equally appalling failure to treat sewage by Southern Water, it is clear there is a systematic problem.”
He said: “It is quite clear that our water companies are failing the public and the environment. They need to be renationalised urgently and invested in properly.”
The BBC is approaching South East Water, Southern Water and the government for comment.
Image source, Sam Dixon-French/BBCEast Grinstead coffee shop manager Russ Bullen says they are only open for takeaways today as without water they have no toilets for visitors.
"We closed for half a day on Saturday, until we managed to get our coffee machine working and running hot water for hand washing.
"It's a tough time of year for hospitality anyway, January.
"We've had a few text messages [from South East Water], same excuses, same reasons. It all seems to be hoping they'll get it fixed in the next day or two.
"It was supposed to be last night, we're looking now at Tuesday evening. It's disappointing."
Helen Catt
Political editor, BBC South East
The water outage has been handled "badly" by South East Water (SEW), a government source has told BBC South East.
The same source said Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds has been "shocked by the lack of accountability" shown by the company.
The government was also said to be particularly unimpressed by SEW's communications with customers.
Michael Keohan
Kent political reporter
Image source, ReutersRosie Duffield, the MP for Canterbury, has joined the list of South East MPs calling for the resignation of the South East Water boss.
Earlier on Tuesday, the BBC learned that Helen Whately, the Faversham MP, was writing a letter, supported by two other Kent MPs, calling for David Hinton to step down.
Fellow MPs Helen Grant, Maidstone and Malling, and Tom Tugendhat, Tonbridge, are supporting the call.
Meanwhile, in Sussex, East Grinstead and Uckfield MP Mims Davies has also called on Hinton to "consider his position".
Tunbridge Wells MP, Liberal Democrat Mike Martin, has already made repeated calls for Hinton to step down.
The problems South East Water (SEW) are facing are not isolated within the UK's water industry.
Water companies across England and Wales are privatised, whereas in Scotland and Northern Ireland they are publicly owned systems.
In England and Wales, the governments are in charge of setting the water policy and framework for the companies.
In October last year, water companies in England and Wales were ordered to refund more than £260m to customers based on their poor performance.
It came after a spike in serious pollution incidents.
In its annual rating system, the Environment Agency gave England's water companies their worst ever combined marks for their environmental performance in 2024.
And in a landmark review into the sector, released in July 2025, the government scrapped the various regulators in England in charge of monitoring performance, and said instead it would go forward with one combined regulator.
Image source, Getty ImagesIf you have been affected by water service issues, changes to compensation rates, external that came into force last year mean customers and businesses could be reimbursed more.
If you go 12 hours without water due to unplanned interruption, South East Water's standards, external says you will receive an automatic payment of £30 into your account - and then further £30 payments for each 12 hour period that the supply is not restored.
Households will receive automatic compensation for low water pressure - and can get up to £250 for consistent low water pressure under the new government regulations.
You can also receive compensation for supplies not being restored in time or complaints not being actioned in time.
Rozina Sini
BBC News
Image source, Hannah Forbes and Duncan MorrisOne couple's frustration at their water company is clear, as they say they have been affected but outages "many times".
Speaking to the BBC, Hannah Forbes from Tunbridge Wells said the information from South East Water today was "non-existent".
She said it was "getting to the point that we have zero confidence that they can fix this issue".
Forbes is worried about the future of local businesses too.
"The system and infrastructure is crumbling and they are not being honest about it," she said.
Her partner, Duncan Morris, said they scrambled to fill containers this morning when they had a burst of water, and now the local bottled water station has run out of water.
"I’m looking to buy a portable shower," he said, adding: "The compensation we get is absolutely pathetic."
She asked: "Why can't the Army come and help bring tankers to at least provide water for flushing the loo, or at the very least bring bottled water from other parts of the country?"
Here is a timeline of Kent and Sussex's water supply problems.
Downing Street has said the water issues in the south east of England are "completely unacceptable" and ministers are holding daily emergency meetings with South East Water and local officials.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has held meetings every day since Thursday to "hold the water company to account" and to press for support for essential services and vulnerable customers, the prime minister's official spokesperson has said.
This action has helped double the compensation rates for affected customers and businesses, "putting more money back into people's pockets when services are hit", the spokesperson said.
"We appreciate that for residents, they just want repeated disruption to end," they said.
"This incident, alongside previous ones, in that region, including before Christmas, show the urgent need to improve infrastructure."
The spokesperson said a record £104bn had already been secured to invest in infrastructure.
The government will soon publish a water white paper setting out its "comprehensive long term plans to reform the water sector," they added.
