Engineers are completing repairs to a burst water main which left households and businesses experiencing supply issues overnight.
People living and working in the Pembury area of Tunbridge Wells reported being without water at around 8pm yesterday (February 21).
Head of leakage at South East Water (SEW), Phil Jones, confirmed it was due to a technical issue at its drinking water storage tank, which impacted its ability to pump water from the site
He added: “We are very sorry to customers in the Pembury area of Tunbridge Wells who experienced water supply issues overnight.
“Our team worked throughout the night to resolve this, and customer supplies were returned.”
However, earlier this morning (February 22), a burst water main was found in Woodhill Park, Pembury.
An update, published on SEW’s website at 4am, said: “We are really sorry to those of you who are experiencing low water pressure or no water at the moment.
“This has been caused by a burst main, which we are trying to fix as quickly as we can. As soon as the repairs have been completed, your water will return to normal.
“Please be rest assured we are doing everything we can to get you back up and running as soon as possible.”
The SEW website was still reporting that customers were experiencing low water pressure or no water at 8.30am.
Mr Jones added: “Our team is on site, and the works are underway. We expect the repairs to be completed by early afternoon.
“Once again, we are very sorry for the interruption to customer supplies, and we are working to get this resolved as quickly and safely as possible”
The latest disruption comes just a month after more than 30,000 homes across Kent and Sussex were left without water.
Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Canterbury were also among the areas affected, with schools and businesses forced to shut as a result.
The outage, which was caused by failures at treatment works and burst pipes, resulted in MPs and councillors heavily criticising South East Water’s communication and calling for the resignation of the company CEO, David Hinton.
The Prime Minister also branded the water crisis as “totally unacceptable” while Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called for the government to strip South East Water of its licence.
Mr Hinton, who has stayed put in his position, revealed last week that the outage cost the company nearly £30 million.
The news was revealed at a meeting with customers, organised by the Consumer Water Council, in which they demanded answers from the water boss over the handling of the water supply disruption.
Earlier this week, around 3,000 properties across Staplehurst and Marden were also left with supply issues following a burst main.
Repairs were completed shortly before 4pm on the same day (February 17).
