Thousands of properties across South East England remain affected by outages, after a major incident was declared in Kent and Sussex earlier this week.
Many people entered a fifth day with either no or intermittent water following the recent outages, which South East Water (SEW) blamed on Storm Goretti causing power cuts and burst pipes, resulting in the company’s drinking water storage tanks running low.
SEW said on Wednesday morning that supplies had been restored to 8,000 properties across the two counties, but later said the total was 16,000.
However, it did confirm the 6,500 properties in Tunbridge Wells that had been on a “boosted system” had lost supplies for the day.
In a statement, SEW incident manager Matthew Dean said: “Water supplies have returned to 11,500 properties in East Grinstead, a further 2,500 are returning to supply this afternoon [Wednesday] with the remaining 2,500 later today.
“The 6,500 properties in Tunbridge Wells on the boosted system have lost supplies for today after the water levels in the area’s drinking water storage tanks dropped below the level the boosters can run.
“In total, supplies have been restored to 16,000 properties across Kent and Sussex during the past 24 hours.”
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Mr Dean added: “We are very sorry to all our customers who have been affected.
“We know and understand how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is and how difficult it makes everyday life.”
SEW bosses have been recalled to appear before MPs over a separate water outage which left 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells without drinkable water for almost two weeks in December.
Alistair Carmichael, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee, said he and his colleagues remained “deeply sceptical” about the company’s version of events on the supply failure.
A South East Water spokesperson said: “We have fully complied with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s request for information to date and we will continue to provide any further information requested.
“This will include attending any further meetings that are required.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey on Wednesday called for SEW to be stripped of its licence for “failing its customers over and over again”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who called the situation “totally unacceptable, said ministers are holding “daily emergency meetings” about the ongoing outages.
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SEW said its customer care team is “delivering bottled water to the customers on our Priority Services Register who are most in need.
“We are also supporting hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for care homes, schools, medical care providers and to support livestock.”
Multiple bottled water stations continue to operate in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Maidstone, and location details can be found on SEW’s website.
