Residents in Kent have expressed fury and desperation as thousands of homes remain without water during a record-breaking heatwave, leaving them unable to cook, shower, or flush toilets. The crisis is also threatening local businesses at the start of the tourist season.
Water outages spread across Kent
Over the bank holiday weekend, approximately 800 homes in the villages of Charing, Challock, and Molash lost their water supply. By Thursday, the situation had worsened, with around 8,000 homes in the seaside town of Whitstable, north Kent, cut off for 24 hours. In nearby Herne Bay, thousands more were affected, forcing a doctor's surgery to close and relocate appointments, and a leisure centre to shut its doors.
South East Water warned that about 6,500 customers in Whitstable would experience intermittent supply again on Thursday.
Businesses forced to close
Cafes, pubs, and restaurants have been forced to close at the start of the tourist season, raising fears for their survival. The Old Neptune pub on Whitstable seafront turned customers away due to a lack of water and flushable toilets. Landlord Darren Wilton told KentOnline: "It's just unacceptable. We've had a wet winter. I can remember February – it rained every day. Where's all the water gone? I'll tell you where it's gone – it's all the leaks in the road that they're not fixing."
Richard Torble, a software developer from Whitstable, said he spent an hour queueing for bottled water when he should have been at work. His 10-year-old son desperately needed a shower after football camp in high temperatures. Torble criticised the "appalling lack of communication" from the water company, stating: "You'll get a text alert that says visit the website, but the website says, 'You don't have any water'. I know I don't. Everybody asks, 'When is it going to be back on?' and their response is, 'We don't know'. People are desperate for information."
He added that the entire high street in Whitstable was closed, with businesses losing money hand over fist during what should be a profitable time of year. Torble said repeated outages might drive him to move abroad.
Residents demand action
Julie Friel, another Whitstable resident, said: "We can't wash, we can't drink. It's just wholly unacceptable on the first week of hot weather for this to be happening."
Labour councillors on Canterbury City Council have called on the government to intervene, writing a letter that states: "This situation is unacceptable in modern Britain and is causing significant distress to families, elderly residents, vulnerable people and local businesses. The lack of water provision also has huge negative impacts on our farming and rural communities, both in terms of livestock welfare and agricultural productivity." They demanded that South East Water provide a "firm and robust infrastructure delivery plan" and stressed: "The urgency of this cannot be overstated."
Water company response
South East Water attributed the outages to exceptionally high temperatures creating very high demand, which outstrips the speed at which water can be treated and pumped to homes. The company is urging residents to use water for essential purposes only and to avoid using children's paddling pools. Incident manager Steve Benton apologised and said water in Whitstable was expected to return later on Thursday but might be intermittent over the weekend.
Customer services director Tanya Sephton said the company was "truly sorry" and would compensate customers and businesses fairly. She added: "In the shorter term, our priority continues to be to reduce leakage. We spend over £63m a year on finding and fixing leaks and assets across our network." Nick Price, head of water resources, noted that raw supplies were healthy but explained that simultaneous high usage by whole neighbourhoods pulls water out of local pipes so fast that pressure drops, leaving some homes dry.
