Thousands of people remain without water and schools have been forced to shut after a treatment works closed down over the weekend in Kent.
The Pembury Water Treatment Works in Tunbridge Wells was closed on Saturday after what South East Water (SEW) described as a “chemical issue”.
Up to 24,000 customers were affected, with 14,000 still experiencing low pressure or no water supply at all on Tuesday, four days after the problem occurred.
During efforts to restore the water supply, SEW said the same problem that caused the water treatment works to shut down, had occurred again.
The ongoing issue has led to calls for the chief executive of SEW to step down, while Downing Street has urged the company to do all it can to get water supplies back to normal.
Here’s all you need to know.
What caused the problem?
MP Mr Martin wrote on X that the problem was caused by a “bad batch of coagulant chemicals”. It meant water was not being pumped into storage tanks, resulting in low levels.
Coagulant chemicals are used in both drinking and wastewater treatment. They work by causing tiny particles in the water to clump together, making them more easily spotted and removed in the next stages of the process.
A new batch of the chemical was received on Sunday, according to Mr Martin, but SEW said refilling storage tanks needs to be done slowly to avoid any further issues to the network.
Pembury Water Treatment Works in Tunbridge Wells. Pic: Nigel Chadwick
When will the water supply be restored?
SEW had said it aimed to fully fix the issue by 6pm on Tuesday 2 December. However, the company said this will no longer be possible due to a “recurrence of the water quality issue that caused the initial water treatment shutdown”.
In its latest statement, the company said customers who are still without water are “unlikely” to see supplies return on Tuesday. It added that customers who have had their water restored may also experience “intermittent supplies once more”.
It gave no indication when water supplies would be fully restored for the entire area.
A woman collects bottled water from the Upper Pantiles car park in Tunbridge Wells.
Pic :PA
It said residents may experience brown, white or cloudy water when the supply is returned, all of which is normal and due to naturally occurring deposits which settle and build up within the network.
How have residents been impacted?
In addition to minimal or no water supply getting to households, schools, businesses, libraries, community centres and sports centres were not able to open for at least one day this week.
Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre and The Camden Centre community hall posted on Facebook to say they were closed on Monday.
Pic: PA
More than 10 secondary and primary schools did not open on Monday, with six of these also remaining closed on Tuesday, according to the Kent County Council website.
Many residents took to social media to express their frustrations at the outage.
Teresa Barrett, from the Black Horse pub in Tunbridge, told BBC Radio Kent it had been “difficult” and would like guidance on “how we can claim compensation”.
The water company has said it will address compensation for affected customers automatically once the incident is fully resolved.
Pic: PA
‘A total disaster’
On 1 December, Liberal Democrat MP Mr Martin called for the resignation of the chief executive of SEW over the water outage.
He said: “South East Water’s CEO Dave Hinton, who earns half a million pounds a year, must resign over this total failure of leadership.
“The people of Tunbridge Wells have been here before, suffering six days without water in 2022, and he promised then that lessons would be learnt when it came to communication, crisis management and resilience.
“Nothing has been learnt, and this last weekend has been a total disaster.”
Mr Martin, who has been regularly updating residents on the issue via social media, said he would not rest until Mr Hinton “resigns or is sacked”.
Downing Street said on Tuesday it expected SEW to take all possible action to restore water supplies.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We would hope that the private company in charge of the water supply is straining every sinew to restore provision to households as quickly as possible.”
Where are bottled water stations located?
Multiple bottled water stations have been set up in the area to distribute water to local residents until supplies are fully restored.
These include:
• Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, St John’s Rd, Royal Tunbridge Wells TN4 9TX
• RCP Parking, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 5TP
• Odeon Cinema Knights Way, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3UW
SEW said it has handed out 400,000 litres of bottled water to keep supplies running.
