Residents are still having to use bottled water, or boil it, for drinking, brushing their teeth and cleaning crockery and cutlery
South East Water (SEW) is being investigated by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) for the continuing supply issue in Tunbridge Wells and Pembury. Residents are still having to use bottled water, or boil it, for drinking, brushing their teeth and cleaning crockery and cutlery.
As KentLive reported on Monday (December 8), SEW issued a “boil water notice” for 24,000 households in and around Tunbridge Wells which had no water or low pressure since November 29. Five days earlier, SEW said the “water quality issues” which caused the initial shutdown had returned.
During the crisis, primary and secondary schools, GP surgeries and civil buildings had to close and businesses were unable to trade. Restaurants and hotels “lost thousands of pounds”, said the area’s MP Mike Martin.
He said care homes and vulnerable people were left without water for hours, with many contacting him to get bottled water delivered “because SEW’s phone lines were too busy”. Roads were also gridlocked for hours as people queued to access water distribution sites, and that need for bottled water continues, with water stations open again today (December 11).
SEW’s incident manager, Matthew Dean, told KentLive yesterday: “We understand the past 10 days have been incredibly frustrating. Our boiled water notice remains in place in the Tunbridge Wells area due to the water quality issues that caused the initial shutdown of our water treatment works in Pembury.
“We are testing the water regularly, it remains chemically safe and contains no bacterial contaminants. The water can be used for flushing toilets or showering, but crucially cannot be used for drinking or cooking without boiling and letting it cool first.”
The DWI said its investigation will scrutinise how SEW acted in the lead up to the crisis, during, and after – whenever that may be – to see if it was in line with The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016. The DWI is the quality regulator for public water supplies in England and Wales.
And the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has organised a public evidence session on January 6, which the DWI and SEW’s CEO David Hinton have been invited to, following concern about the water crisis in Tunbridge Wells and Pembury. The committee wants answers from the water company about “planning, resilience, capacity and communications”.
A SEW spokesperson said: “We will fully comply with the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s request for information within the timeframe requested and attend the committee meeting and any future meetings that are required.” Meanwhile, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed SEW, which supplies water to large parts of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, has been served the most DWI notices of all 10 water supply companies during the past five years.
Between the financial years 2020 to 2025, 51 notices were served on SEW by the DWI on behalf of the Secretary of State, including one relating to Pembury Treatment Works. The DWI website shows SEW sent a report in September 2024 to the DWI, stating there was or had been “a significant risk of supplying water from Pembury water treatment works, and associated assets as applicable, that could constitute a potential danger to human health or could be unwholesome”.
A long list of requirements SEW had to carry out was signed on October 6, 2025, by Nicholas Adjei, DWI deputy chief inspector, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Nitrates had been found in high levels in SEW supply areas outside of Kent, with one in East Sussex at Cow Wish Bottom Treatment Works near Newhaven.
The other was at Cookham in Berkshire. SEW’s water supply director, Douglas Whitfield, told KentLive yesterday: “We have a large capital investment programme planned over this five-year period (2025-2030), and Pembury water treatment works is part of that programme. In advance of this full refurbishment, a number of improvements and changes are being made at the site in line with the current regulatory notice.
“Some of these are complete, and others are still ongoing, all of which are in line with the regulators’ timescales.” The FOI was submitted by Showers To You, and it showed between 2020 and 2025, there were 379 drinking water notices served across the UK.
After SEW’s 51 notices, was, Anglian Water (49), and South West and Bournemouth Water (45). SEW’s head of water quality, Dr Neil Hudson, said: “We undertake regular monitoring of our raw water at our treatment works, storage reservoirs and at customer properties.
“In the rare times nitrate concentrations get close to the regulatory standard, we take action immediately, including enhanced monitoring, blending with lower nitrate sources, and, if required, the removal of specific boreholes or water treatment works from supply.” Dr Hudson told KentLive yesterday: “Our laboratory is regulated by the DWI which is an independent organisation responsible for ensuring that public water supplies in England and Wales are safe and drinking water quality is acceptable to consumers.
“We are also accredited to ISO 17025 by the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) which is the national accreditation body for the United Kingdom, appointed by the government, to assess organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. We can confirm that all samples analysed to date collected from the relevant treatment works, service reservoirs and customer properties have not contained E. coli”.
He said home test kits could be a useful guide, they were often inaccurate and may be susceptible to contamination by the user. MP for Tunbridge Wells, Mike Martin, branded SEW’s emergency response as “chaotic” and condemned their “woeful communication”.
He criticised the CEO of SEW, David Hinton, for what he described as his “total failure of leadership” during the outage. SEW’s incident manager, Matthew Dean, also told KentLive: “We are truly sorry for the ongoing impact this situation has had on residents and businesses in the Tunbridge Wells area.
“Our customer care team and Water Direct are continuing to deliver bottled water to eligible customers signed up to our Priority Services Register. To date, we have supplied more than 30 million litres of water to our priority services customers, care homes, hospitals, GPs, nurseries and schools with alternative water should they want it.”
Bottled water stations
SEW bottled water stations are open today (December 11).
These are located at:
- Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, St John’s Rd, Royal Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9TX
- Odeon car park, Knights Way, TN2 3UW
- B&M Store with Garden Centre, Linden Park Road, TN2 5QL
Get more news from KentLive straight to your inbox for free HERE
