Water Supply Disruption Continues to Affect Thousands in Kent Following Treatment Plant Failure

Approximately 7,000 properties in the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent remain without reliable water supply for a second consecutive day, with some experiencing “no water” at all, according to South East Water (SEW).

The outage stems from an “instrument failure” at a local water treatment facility, impacting households and businesses with low pressure, intermittent service, or total disruption.

On Sunday morning, SEW confirmed it was on schedule to restore supplies “at the earliest” by evening and reiterated apologies to affected customers. Emergency bottled water distribution points remained operational in the town for a second day.

Steve Benton, SEW’s incident manager, stated: “We are genuinely sorry to all customers experiencing these issues today (Sunday 19 July). This is not the service we aim to provide, and not the service our customers deserve.”

He noted that drinking water storage levels were gradually recovering but emphasized the need to ensure a “stable, continuous flow” once restored. To achieve this, the company is allowing storage tanks to refill to safe capacity, maintaining its target of resuming supplies by Sunday evening at the earliest.

Bottled water stations operated until 8pm on Sunday at the Tesco superstore on Pembury Road and Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club at St Mark’s recreation ground. SEW is also deploying water tankers to replenish supplies and delivering bottled water to priority customers on its register.

The ongoing disruption adds to SEW’s recent challenges. The company, serving 2.3 million customers in south-east England, disclosed “material uncertainty” over its future last Friday after paying millions in fines and losing its CEO amid a turbulent period. Its annual report revealed a £55m financial impact from winter outages and ongoing discussions with lenders to secure new financing, with current funds expected to last until July 2027.

Additionally, SEW was fined £30.5m by industry regulator Ofwat for prior supply interruptions affecting hundreds of thousands of households in Kent and Sussex.

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