Thousands of residents in Whitstable, Kent, have been left without water supply as storage reservoirs reached a critical level during the ongoing heatwave, South East Water has confirmed.
Water Collection Points Set Up
Images show long queues and traffic jams at a bottled water collection point at a Sainsbury's near Whitstable on Thursday, as the water company reported that 8,000 customers were without supply. The firm has urged customers to use water only for essential purposes—drinking, washing, and cooking—as supply issues persist following the hot bank holiday weekend.
Kent County Council has announced it will intensify public scrutiny of water supply, quality, and infrastructure in the county after a series of recent water outages left residents frustrated.
Supply Restoration Timeline
Steve Benton, incident manager at South East Water, stated that tap water supply in Whitstable is expected to return later on Thursday but may remain intermittent over the weekend. He confirmed that 7,000 customers are currently experiencing low pressure or intermittent supply in areas including Tankerton, Ashford, Ulcombe, Cranbrook, Coxheath, and Headcorn. An additional 7,000 customers are at risk of losing supply today.
Benton explained: "Customers across Kent are still experiencing water supply issues due to extremely high demand during the very hot weather. We are doing everything we can to get treated water into our storage reservoirs, but some customers will continue to have intermittent water supply until these levels have been restored."
Unprecedented Demand
According to South East Water, the company pumped 628 million litres of water to customers on Wednesday alone. Over the weekend, it treated and pumped more than 100 million litres above the daily average for May. Benton apologised to customers and assured that the company would continue efforts to prevent and resolve the issues.
Earlier this month, South East Water's chief executive David Hinton announced his resignation, following the departure of chairman Chris Train after a critical report from MPs who expressed no confidence in the company's leadership. That scrutiny came after thousands of customers were left without tap water, unable to shower or flush toilets during outages between November and January.
New Water Resilience Partnership
On Thursday, Kent County Council announced the formation of a new strategic partnership to oversee water resilience in the county. The Kent Water Resilience Partnership will be chaired by council leader Linden Kemkaran and will include water companies, local authorities, regulators, and other stakeholders. Its focus will be on planning, performance, and public accountability regarding water issues.
Kemkaran stated: "People across Kent are fed up with being left without water or having their supply disrupted, sometimes for days at a time, and not getting clear answers about what's gone wrong or when it will be fixed. That's simply not good enough."
While acknowledging that the council does not have direct power over water companies, Kemkaran emphasised the authority's responsibility to advocate for Kent residents. "At the moment, responsibility is too fragmented and there is no single place where the whole system is being looked at. This partnership intends to change that. It will shine a light on the issues affecting Kent and make sure there is clear, open scrutiny of how those responsible are responding."
Calls for Emergency Declaration
The move follows calls from the Green group at Kent County Council to declare a "Kent Water Supply Emergency" and develop a plan to rectify the situation if water supply in the county is not fit for purpose. Green councillor Stuart Heaver, representing a Whitstable ward, said: "It is unbelievable that once again my residents are without water. This madness just gets worse. We need to find out if our water supply is fit for purpose and resolve this."
