Water supplies are finally being restored to thousands of homes across Kent and Sussex, bringing an end to almost a week of severe disruption that left residents furious.
A Week of Chaos and Mounting Anger
The crisis, which began on Saturday, affected approximately 30,000 properties, with many left completely without running water for six gruelling days. The beleaguered utility company, South East Water (SEW), blamed the widespread outage on Storm Goretti, which it said caused burst pipes and power cuts.
By Friday, the company confirmed that water had been returned to around 6,500 homes in the Tunbridge Wells area. However, officials warned that some customers might still experience low pressure as the network slowly refills. The incident prompted Kent County Council and SEW to declare a major incident on Monday, though councils in East and West Sussex did not follow suit.
Regulatory Scrutiny and Public Outcry
The prolonged failure has triggered a formal investigation by the water regulator, Ofwat. The probe will examine whether South East Water breached its licence conditions by failing to meet customer service standards and provide adequate support during the crisis. If found guilty, the company could ultimately be stripped of its operating licence.
Public and political anger has been intensified by the fact that this is the second major incident in a matter of weeks; a similar outage last month disrupted supplies for 24,000 homes. The situation has drawn heavy criticism from local MPs and residents, particularly as the company's latest financial results revealed a significant jump in pre-tax profits.
South East Water Limited reported a pre-tax profit of £18.2 million for the six months to 30 September 2025, a stark increase from the £2.6 million recorded in the same period the previous year.
Residents' Ordeal and Ongoing Issues
Elderly residents in a Tunbridge Wells care home told Sky News of their immense hardship, with one comparing the situation unfavourably to the war years, stating, "You're never clean - everything you touch is dirty. It's awful."
Despite the restoration of mains supply, problems persist. In the village of Bidborough, Kent, some 320 homes are still suffering from low water pressure. South East Water has stated that bottled water stations will remain open on Friday "as a precaution".
Mathew Dean, SEW's incident manager, offered an apology: "We are very sorry to every single one of our customers who have been affected. We know and understand how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is." He explained that recovery involved keeping local booster pumps off for 36 hours to allow storage tanks to replenish.
