Thousands without water after hottest days of 2025 so far

KentOnline / KMTV

It comes as South East Water has renewed its appeal to customers to only use essential water due to what the company has described as challenging conditions. Bartholomew Hall reports.

Transcript

00:00This was the sight of hundreds of people in Herne Bay on the hottest day of the year so

00:04far as thousands of properties in the seaside town were left without a supply, all said

00:10to have been caused by high demand. Temperatures soared above 30 degrees across Kent, with health

00:17bosses warning residents to stay cool and drink plenty of water. The issues in Herne

00:22Bay were eventually restored but then, at around midday today, a further 3,000 people

00:28down the road in Seasalter and Whitstable reported a trickle of supply.

00:33I was first alerted on social media through one of the local resident groups that water

00:38pressure was low and then people said, well I haven't got any and then more and more people

00:44said, well I've got none, we've got none again. The summit has only just started and I am very

00:50concerned that this, you know, I was going to say it's a creaking infrastructure but it's

00:57not even there, it's a broken infrastructure.

01:01South East Water said in a statement, we're working hard to restore supplies as quickly

01:05as possible, using tankers to inject water directly into our network to help get drinking

01:11water back to customers' taps. It comes just days after the water giant sent a message to

01:16customers urging them only to use water for essential purposes, including drinking, washing

01:22and cooking. South East Water is so concerned about water levels that it's issued an amber

01:27warning for the parts of Kent that it supplies. This means that on average, more than 625 million

01:34litres of water are being used by people here in the county every day. In fact, just a few

01:39days ago, the company recorded its highest so far this year, 680 million litres of water.

01:46That's roughly the same as one of these for every adult. Residents are advised to capture

01:51and reuse water at this time, avoid washing cars and patios and not to worry about dried

01:57out lawns. However, not all customers are happy with being asked to save water.

02:02We pay enough money so that we shouldn't have to go through these procedures.

02:07I've seen, you know, people doing their cars even in this sort of weather.

02:13They're right, they're right, but given how much sewage they're pumping into the, into

02:17the waters that maybe they need to look into their own disposal facilities first.

02:23Well, water bills are going up and up and up, aren't they? I think I pay about £55 a month

02:29and the reservoirs are empty and yeah, we need to save water, why not, for just a few weeks.

02:34Right now, a hosepipe ban isn't in force. But the company says as long as customers make

02:39small changes now, further measures can be avoided. Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.

02:44Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.

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