Chaos in Tunbridge Wells as a treatment plant shutdown has left 6,000 homes without drinking water (Picture: UKNIP)
A town in Kent has been hit with disruption in the water supply after a treatment plant had to shut down at the weekend.
Some 24,000 people living in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, have had either no water or low pressure since the issue began late on Saturday.
People have been unable to get drinking water, flush toilets or shower.
South East Water (SEW) has apologised for the situation and said that supply should return by 8am on Tuesday.
Many businesses and schools in the area have had to close their doors due to the disruption.
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Several primary schools are shut today:
- St Peter’s Church of England Primary School
- Claremont Primary School
- St James’ Primary School
- St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School
- St. John’s Church of England Primary School
- Skinners’ Kent Primary School
- Skinners’ Temple Grove
This is alongside four secondary schools, which have made provisions for students to learn remotely:
- The Skinners’ Kent Academy announced on Sunday it would not open on Monday
- The Skinners’ School is closed to pupils
- Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys has closed its St John’s Road campus
- Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School is also shut but ‘confident that we will be able to return to school tomorrow’
Some 11 schools have been forced to close due to the outage (Picture: UKNIP)
Mike Martin, the MP for Tunbridge Wells, has called the situation an ‘absolute disaster’. After speaking with SEW, he posted on X that he was ‘not confident’ in their plans for water to be back by 2pm on Monday.
The company has since said while some customers are ‘beginning to see supplies gradually return’, the majority of people would not see their supplies ‘fully restored’ until Tuesday morning.
Where are the bottled water stations in Tunbridge Wells?
There are currently three stations for residents to collect bottled drinking water during the outage:
- The Odeon cinema on Knights Way
- Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre on St John’s Road
- RCP Parking’s Upper Pantiles car park, just off Major York’s Road
Martin has added that provision at distribution sites has been ‘wholly insufficient for the demand’ in town.
The St John’s Road station temporarily ran out of water on Sunday morning, prompting further anxiety from locals.
Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin (right) with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey (Picture: James Manning/PA Wire)
One X user, @EdSmith75, called the situation an ‘absolute joke’, criticising that the water collection was first set up in ‘Tonbridge not Tunbridge Wells, hello 5 miles apart’.
He added the bottle distribution had caused ‘queues of traffic in the town’ and that the ‘comms were awful’.
Another user, @kentishsal, said: ‘Brilliant that @ThreshedThought [Mike Martin MP] is putting his Army training to good use, but why is it down to him to be doing this comms? Why isn’t the CEO of @sewateruk on here (or anywhere) showing leadership, responsibility and accountability?’
On Sunday, a local wrote on Facebook: ‘My son waited at the water bottle station in Tonbridge for 2 hours this morning, along with many others.
‘The lorry full of bottled water is there with another full lorry waiting down the road. They aren’t allowed to unload the water as there has to be a rep from SE Water there! Disgusting.’
Mother-of-two Nicola Hodgson also said her husband had unsuccessfully tried to get water supplies at the sports centre.
‘We have two young children, aged five and seven, so [they] have decamped to their grandmothers for the moment, so we can get them something to drink and have working toilets’, she told the BBC.
Queues have piled up at stations handing out bottled water to affected residents (Picture: UKNIP)
Local businesses have also faced disruption, as Indian takeaway Spice Fusion told its customers: ‘Please note that Spice Fusion will remain closed tonight due to a water interruption in Tunbridge Wells which makes it impossible for us to operate safely and maintain our hygiene standards.
‘We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. We will reopen as soon as the water supply is restored.’
Eating establishments are unable to open by law without working toilets, including takeaways which must have them available for staff.
In a statement, SEW has said: ‘We’re sorry to customers in the Tunbridge Wells area who continue to have no water or low pressure. This is due to an issue at our Pembury Water Treatment Works, resulting in the site shutting down.’
It added: ‘Our customer care team has been delivering bottles of water to all customers on our Priority Services Register who have indicated to us that they would be unable to collect water from a bottled water station.’
Martin has also explained that the problem was ‘a bad batch of coagulant chemicals’. He added: ‘A new set of chemicals have been procured and the team have been working through [Saturday] night to clean out Pembury Treatment Works.’
A SEW spokesperson said: ‘When the water supply returns, you may experience discolouration.
‘If your water looks brown in colour, please don’t worry as it is not harmful.’
SEW said customers should ‘simply run their cold water tap until the water turns clear’.
How can water outages be prevented from happening again?
This is not the first time Tunbridge Wells has faced outages of this kind, with SEW recording numerous incidents in the past few years.
Water supply issues have resulted from multiple sources:
- A burst pipe due to snow and ice in December 2022
- A burst water main in June 2023
- Repairs after a leak in August 2024
- Treatment plant closure in November 2025
Other towns in the area such as Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and East Grinstead have also faced disruption in recent years.
The Consumer Council for Water found that South East Water had the most complaints for a firm that provides water only in October 2023.
Historically the company has recommended hosepipe bans and limiting use when supply issues are likely, such as around power cuts or during the spring season.
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