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Sun, 19 Jul 2026

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 Anger as water supply misery continues for second day

Residents in Kent describe South East Water as "incompetently useless" as supply issues continue.

*South East Water (SEW) apologised and reopened two bottled water stations in Tunbridge Wells on Sunday, with a third opening later.
*The company said supplies would return by Sunday evening "at the earliest", but previous outages have continued for longer than predicted.
*Low storage levels and high demand are causing issues, particularly in areas on higher ground.
*SEW is continuing to deliver bottled water to customers from its priority services register, a free support scheme for people who need extra help.
*The company faces intense scrutiny after multiple supply failures in recent months, including one that left 24,000 customers without water or pressure in November.
*Customers have been critical of SEW's performance, with one resident calling the company "incompetently useless".
*SEW has been ordered to spend £30.5m on improvements and warned it needs fresh financing to stay afloat after taking a £55m hit from outages over the winter.
*The water supplier serves around 2.3 million customers in the south east of England and is currently in discussions with lenders to agree a new loan facility.