Village hit with water issues twice in 24 hours

Residents of a Kent village have been hit by two separate issues affecting their fresh water supplies within 24 hours.

The first incident started on Saturday at about 20:00 GMT when South East Water (SEW) reported a technical issue at its drinking water storage tank, affecting supplies in Pembury.

A spokesperson for the company said the issue was dealt with overnight and supplies were returned to customers.

However, Pembury properties were affected again when SEW said it had identified a burst main at Woodhill Park in the early hours of Sunday.

A SEW spokesperson confirmed the problems were "not related to the previous issue at its treatment works" that affected 24,000 properties in the run up to Christmas.

The company's head of leakage, Phil Jones, said: "We're very sorry to customers in the Pembury area who experienced water supply issues Saturday overnight and intermittent supplies on Sunday.

"We were injecting water into our network via tankers while necessary repairs were completed."

Jones said this was to ensure customers remained in supply, but some may have experienced intermittent supplies.

He says the repair has been completed and the network is "returning to normal".

Jones explained there may be airlocks which "must be cleared carefully and systematically to prevent further bursts in the network".

He says as supplies return, it is common for the water to look cloudy or brown as discolouration is caused by naturally occurring iron and manganese deposits in the pipes.

Jones added the deposits were harmless.

"If water is discoloured, customers are advised to run their cold tap until it runs clear. It's then safe to use for drinking, washing, and cooking," he said.

In recent months, SEW has been heavily criticised by residents, business owners and politicians over repeated water supply interruptions.

In issues in November, affecting about 24,000 households in Kent and East Sussex were caused by a "bad chemical batch" at its Pembury Water Treatment Works.

In January, 6,500 customers in Tunbridge Wells endured more water disruption.

Later in the same month residents near the Blackhurst drinking water storage tanks between Tunbridge Wells and Pembury complained of continuous disruption as tankers were used "at all hours of the day" to refill the tanks.

SEW said the cold weather had caused a "series of burst water mains" while Storm Goretti had "slowed the refilling of its storage tanks".

There have been repeated calls for the company's boss, David Hinton, to resign with Ofwat launching an investigation into whether SEW provides high enough standards of customer service and support.

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