Thousands without water supply after reservoirs ‘reach critical level’

South East Water has said 8,000 customers in Whitstable are without water supply.

Thousands of people in Whitstable are without water supply during the hot spell of weather as storage reservoirs for the area “reached a critical level”, South East Water said.

Pictures show traffic and queues of people lined up at a bottled water collection point at a Sainsbury’s near the Kent town on Thursday, as the water company said 8,000 customers were without supply.

It comes as the firm urged customers to use water for essential purposes only – for drinking, washing and cooking, as supply issues continued from over the hot bank holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, Kent County Council announced it will step up public scrutiny of water supply, quality and infrastructure in the county following a series of water outages in recent days, leaving residents “fed up”.

South East Water said 8,000 properties in Whitstable had no tap water, and while parts of the town would see supplies return later on Thursday, for some it would be Friday morning, and it could “remain intermittent over the weekend”.

Incident manager Steve Benton apologised to customers and said the storage areas for the Whistable area were at “critical level” because of “extremely high demand during the very hot weather”.

He said 14,000 properties were experiencing low pressure or an intermittent supply in Tankerton, Ashford and its surrounding areas, Ulcombe, Cranbrook, Coxheath, Headcorn, Herne Bay, Charing, Challock and Molash.

Mr Benton said they were delivering bottled water to vulnerable customers in areas where supplies were interrupted, or they believe there could be problems.

“We have delivered 229,464 litres of water to customers on our priority services register, and also delivered bottled water to critical care settings such as care homes, GP surgeries, pharmacies and dentists,” he said.

“Additionally, we are supporting the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Herne Bay and urgent care unit with a tanker and supporting those with livestock.

“We are continuing to ask customers in supply to use water for essential purposes only – for example drinking, washing and cooking.

“We have bottled water collection stations already set up and are reviewing these locations continuously.”

Whitstable resident Julie Friel told the Press Association her water supply became affected at around 6pm on Wednesday before being completely gone by 8pm.

The 52-year-old said: “We can’t wash, we can’t drink. My partner went out about 7.30am to join the massive queues for water.

“It’s just wholly unacceptable on the first week of hot weather for this to be happening.”

The life coach, who lives with her partner and their cat and dog, used three two-litre bottles of water on Thursday morning doing washing, making breakfast, flushing toilets and making sure the pets had drinking water.

She added there is “no real information to what’s happening” and complained to South East Water on the phone on Wednesday evening.

She said people are like “sitting ducks” with water, adding it seems there is “nothing you can do”.

“It’s not fun having to do a real shallow kitchen sink wash when you’re sweating, it is not nice,” she added.

Mark Stubbs, head chef of Wheelers Oyster Bar on Whitstable high street, told PA the water outage was a “bit of a shock” and the restaurant had to close, cancel bookings and send staff home on Thursday.

The restaurant receives fresh stock on Thursdays but “I can’t sell it”, he added, as health and safety rules means food outlets cannot open without running water for hygiene reasons.

“Staff have had to be sent home, it’s costing a lot of money,” the chef said.

“It’s nice weather and half term when the high street should be thriving.

“The hospitality industry is going to be hit again really hard.”

The 52-year-old said his water supply at home has also been cut off since Wednesday evening so he will be “going home smelling of fish and got nowhere to wash”.

“We haven’t even had a summer, we’ve had one hot hot day,” he said. “So what is it going to be like if we have continual nice weather?”

He said if the water outage continues it will cost the restaurant a “fortune” because fresh fish is perishable so he cannot sell it.

“I’m not going to give my customers substandard food,” he said.

Earlier this month South East Water’s chief executive David Hinton announced his plans to step down just a week after the group’s chairman Chris Train quit following a scathing report by MPs, who said they had “no confidence” in the company’s leadership.

The scrutiny came after thousands of customers were left unable to access tap water, shower or flush their toilets during the outages between November and January.

Dry Wells Action, a consumer action group based in Tunbridge Wells, said the latest outages show South East Water has “learned nothing from the catastrophic Tunbridge Wells water crisis”.

Group chairman Jonathan Hawker said: “How can South East Water still be getting the basics of crisis response so badly wrong?

“Customers were promised lessons would be learned. These latest failures demonstrate, once again, it’s all talk and no action. The licence of this water monopoly that cannot deliver should surely now be revoked.”

On Thursday, Kent County Council said it will set up a new “strategic partnership” to oversee water resilience in the county following the latest outages.

The Kent Water Resilience Partnership will be chaired by council leader Linden Kemkaran and include water companies, local authorities, regulators and others to focus on planning, performance and show publicly how water issues are being addressed.

Ms Kemkaran said: “People across Kent are fed up with being left without water or having their supply disrupted, sometimes for days at a time, and not getting clear answers about what’s gone wrong or when it will be fixed.

“That’s simply not good enough.”

The council boss said while the authority does not have direct power over water companies, “we do have a responsibility to stand up for Kent”.