Hundreds affected as water outage hits three villages

7 hours ago

Hsin-Yi LoSouth East

News image — South East Water says the disruption is due to issues with its pumping station

Simon Jones/BBC Two people in hi-vis jackets getting water bottles out of the back of a red car. There is a large lorry next to the car. — South East Water says the disruption is due to issues with its pumping station

About 250 properties in three Kent villages are continuing to be hit by water supply issues.

Charing, Challock and Molash first experienced problems on Saturday evening and South East Water (SEW) said the issue was resolved overnight.

However, a spokesperson for the company said water supply problems resumed at about 09:25 BST on Sunday, citing "issues with the pumping station".

Separate incidents are also affecting 168 homes in Eastbourne and about 20 homes in Ulcombe near Maidstone, a South East Water spokesperson said.

Incident manager Steve Benton said they were "sorry" to their customers who have experienced low pressure or no water intermittently this weekend.

"This interruption is due to a technical failure at our pumping station near Charing, which means we have struggled to push water to properties on higher ground," he said.

Benton said this has impacted about 250 properties in the area, down from 790 earlier, and an incident team was in place working as "safely and quickly" as possible to return water to all customers in the area.

"We know water supply issues during hot weather are deeply frustrating and incredibly inconvenient," he added.

Benton said the hot weather had seen "increased demand" from customers, which was putting pressure on the network.

The company said a bottle station is open at Challock Village Hall Blind Lane, Challock, Ashford.

It comes as the UK saw the hottest day of the year so far on Saturday, when the village of Frittenden, in Kent, hit 30.5C (86.9F).

Simon Jones/BBC Several slabs of water placed at a car park. There is a contractor, in a hi-vis clothing, standing beside a lorry. — SEW says it has set up a bottle water station at Challock Village Hall Blind Lane

Challock resident Robert Frampton-Fell told the BBC of his frustration with the continuing problem.

"We had disruptions yesterday but water returned at about 22:00 last night," he said.

"We've had problems like this a few times before over the last few years. It's hugely inconvenient."

His wife, Janet, added: "It is particularly concerning and dangerous not to have water supply, especially today, as it is very warm."

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