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South East Water faces second day of outages in Kent after instrument failure
The utility said up to 7,000 properties were affected by low pressure, no water, or intermittent supply, and supplies would not be fully restored until Sunday evening at the earliest.
Thousands of households and businesses in Kent have faced water supply problems for a second day, after South East Water said a temporary instrument failure at its Tunbridge Wells water treatment works disrupted service. The company said up to 7,000 properties were seeing low pressure, no water, or intermittent supply while the issue was addressed.
South East Water said two bottled water stations in Tunbridge Wells were open for a second day, including locations at a Tesco Superstore on Pembury Road and at Tunbridge Wells Rugby Club, which briefly closed to restock earlier on Sunday. The company also said its treatment works were now stable.
The outage is exacerbated by low storage levels and high demand, South East Water said, adding it could not pump water to some higher ground areas. It said it continued to deliver bottled water to customers on its priority services register, a free support scheme for people who need extra help.
The broader backdrop is heightened scrutiny of South East Water after repeated failures, the BBC noted. Earlier this week, the company was ordered to spend 30.5 million pounds on improvements by industry watchdog Ofwat, and it warned in its annual report that it needed fresh financing after taking a 55 million pound hit from winter outages while it discussed a new loan facility with lenders.