Kent and Sussex hit with water supply issues
Simon Jones/BBCSeveral areas in Kent and Sussex are experiencing water supply disruptions due to the hot spell, says South East Water (SEW).
Areas impacted include several villages in Kent, Maidstone and Battle in East Sussex.
Head of operations control, Matthew Dean, said the company was "sorry" for the disruptions, and explained these outages were due to "increased demand" following the hot weather.
He added supplies would continue to be intermittent for some customers until temperatures decreased and demand reduced.
But that team members were "continuing to do all they could" to restore drinking water supplies in impacted areas.
The total number of affected properties remains unclear.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) spokesperson said officials were "in close contact with the company and expect it to restore supplies as quickly as possible".
Impacted areas
Areas that are experiencing supply issues in Kent include:
- Foster Street, Maidstone
- Amage Road, Wye, Ashford
- Ulcombe Hill, Ulcombe, near Maidstone
- Stockett Lane, Coxheath, Maidstone
- Church Lane and Pilgrims Way, Kemsing, Sevenoaks
- Campion Crescent, Cranbrook
- Loose (near Maidstone) and surrounding areas
- Herne Bay properties
- Tankerton properties
In Sussex
- Hastings Road, Battle, East Sussex
- Paddockhurst Road, Turners Hill, West Sussex
- Willow Way, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex
SEW says a water bottle station is now open at Altira Business Park, 6 The Blvd, Herne Bay CT6 6GZ, from 08:00 BST.
With the hot weather expected to last a few more days, Dean urged customers to help keep taps flowing locally.
He cited that on Tuesday alone, 600 million litres of water were pumped to customers across all regions SEW services - 100 million litres more than the daily average.
This included using water only for essential purposes: drinking, washing and cooking.
Dean said the company had planned for the "extremely high demand" by increasing output at their water treatment works and putting extra water into the network.
This comes as nearly 800 properties across three villages in Kent experienced several days of water supply disruptions from Saturday until Tuesday.
SEW said most customers in Charing, Challock and Molash should have had their supply returned, although some properties might be experiencing low pressure.
It explained due to the nature of water supply networks, customers on higher ground or at the far end of the network might still have low pressure or supply interruptions, especially at peak use times.
The departures of SEW's chair and chief executive were confirmed earlier in May following multiple severe supply failures that have affected tens of thousands of properties since November.
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