As the heatwave extends into the weekend, South East Water has advised residents living in and around Kent to limit their water usage due to an enduring supply issue
Brits anticipating more barmy wether this weekend will have their misery compounded by one water company, which is asking thousands of people to limit their usage despite the mercury remaining close to 30C.
South East Water has asked its customers to use water only for essential uses, such as drinking, washing and cooking, this weekend due to supply shortages in its catchment area. The issues caused misery across Kent, where up to 3,500 customers have been affected, forcing businesses to close and residents to queue up at water bottle stations.
The company’s incident response manager, Matthew Dean, has asked those affected to conserve supplies as, despite promises to fix the issue, tap water is “likely to remain intermittent across the weekend for all customers in this area”.
Mr Dean said on Friday that 3,500 customers in the Whitstable area will see supply “return later today”, as other customers are left without water. In Cranbrook, 165 customers are living without access to drinking water as storage tanks for the area have “reached a critical level”.
Around 10,500 customers are experiencing low pressure or intermittent supply in Coxheath, Loose, Headcorn, Herne Bay and Benenden areas.
Mr Dean said: “We are starting to see tap water supplies returning to some customers across Kent, however, some are still experiencing water supply issues as a result of incredibly high demand during this heatwave. This means for the majority of customers, tap water is intermittent, with supply coming and going throughout the day, with no water or low pressure most frequently occurring at times of the day when demand for water is at its highest – in the morning and evening.”
The incident response manager added that nearly 230,000 litres of water have been delivered to vulnerable customers, and that bottled water has been provided for settings like care homes, GP surgeries, pharmacies and dentists.
Nearly 340,000 bottles of water have also been given out at bottled water stations across the county while officials seek to find new locations to open more water points. It comes as temperatures across Kent and much of the southeast are set to remain high for May, with maps from WXCharts showing the mercury sticking between 24C and 26C on Saturday, and 21C to 22C on Sunday.
During the current outage, South East Water’s Mr Dean continued to ask customers to use water for essential uses only, such as drinking, washing and cooking.
He said: “We are sorry to customers who have had interruptions or low pressure in their water supply and know how frustrating it is, especially in very hot weather. We will continue to do all we can to prevent and resolve the issues.” He said 619 million litres of water were pumped to customers on Thursday, which is higher than average for this time of year.
He added: “On some days during this period of high demand, we have treated and pumped around 100 million litres more than the daily average for May.”
