Water supply returns to hundreds of homes
PA MediaSouth East Water (SEW) says hundreds of homes in Kent have had their full water supply restored on Monday, after more than a week of disruption.
The latest issues, which affected several villages around Maidstone over the weekend, were blamed on an electrical fault at a treatment works.
On Sunday, about 800 customers in Linton were still experiencing low pressure or no water, while about 320 properties in the Bidborough area of Tunbridge Wells have been suffering supply issues since Wednesday.
In addition, a burst main in Langley during the early hours meant some residents there had also been experiencing an intermittent service.
On Monday morning, a SEW spokesperson said repairs in Broomfield had been completed and the company was "slowly returning the water to the pipework".
"This has to be done in a controlled way to prevent any further issues," they said.
Hours earlier, SEW had forecasted "a full restoration" overnight of water supplies to customers in the Bidborough area.
On Monday morning, SEW confirmed that water had "now returned to the final 500 properties in the Harrietsham area".
A spokesperson said its network was being "recharged" after teams repaired a leaking water main on Ashford Road on Sunday night.
They added that, as a precautionary measure, a bottled water station would remain open at Mote Park Leisure Centre, along with a walk-in bottled water collection point at Harrietsham Village Hall.
However, Carlie Chase, who lives in the town, said she was "terrified" the outages would "become the norm", while Sunrise Day Nursery manager Sarah Bryan described the situation as "so inconvenient for working parents" and said SEW "should do better".
Resident John Denton added: "These water executives earn hundreds of thousands of pounds, but they can't even do the basics and keep water flowing out of our taps."
Apologising to its customers, SEW previously attributed problems on a series of leaks across its network caused by freezing temperatures, followed by the effects of Storm Goretti.
The company said high volumes of rain had rendered some treatment works unable to properly process water.
Neighbouring water company Southern Water also faced similar problems, and, as it looked to maintain water to its customers, it stopped its normal bulk water supply to parts of the SEW network.
Last week's disruptions saw some 30,000 people in Sussex and Kent affected, which resulted in a major incident being declared.
Bottled water stations had to be set up in various locations, while tankers were used to inject water directly into the network while its storage tanks were still being replenished.
And, as of Monday afternoon, Beacon Rise in East Grinstead, West Sussex, and Cross In Hand in Heathfield, East Sussex, were still experiencing "low or no water pressure", according to the SEW website.
On Thursday, water regulator Ofwat launched a first-of-its-kind investigation over repeated water supply failures in the two counties.
It will look at whether SEW breached its licence around customer care.
David Hinton, the boss of SEW, was also recalled to parliament to face another round of questions from select committee MPs.
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