- Thousands of residents across Kent, specifically around Tunbridge Wells, are facing severe water supply issues, with approximately 7,000 properties experiencing low pressure, intermittent supply, or no water.
- South East Water (SEW) attributed the widespread disruption to an "instrument failure" at a local water treatment works and issued an apology to affected customers.
- SEW stated they were "on target" for supplies to begin returning by Sunday evening at the earliest and provided bottled water stations and tanker deliveries to priority customers.
- This incident follows a recent order from industry watchdog Ofwat for SEW to pay £30.5 million, including a £22 million fine, for previous supply interruptions affecting hundreds of thousands of households between 2020 and 2023.
- SEW also revealed in its annual report that it needs to secure fresh financing to stay afloat after a £55 million hit from winter outages and a recent downgrading of its credit rating.
IN FULL
