27/05/2026
This is the latest update from South East Water. Email sent at 10.54pm
Good evening,
Customers across Kent are still experiencing water supply issues as a result of incredibly high demand during this heatwave. We are sincerely 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.
The situation
Yesterday (Tuesday 26 May) we pumped 660 million litres of water to customers across our region, which is over 100 million litres more than the average for a day.
As mentioned in our earlier update there are intermittent supplies across many areas and loss of supply altogether in others.
Areas currently affected include:
Whitstable - around 7,000 customers lost supplies this afternoon because the storage reservoirs which serve the area have reached a critical level.
Herne Bay - around 6,500 customers are experiencing intermittent supply.
Tankerton - less than 500 customers are experiencing intermittent supply.
Ashford & surrounding areas - around 4,000 customers are experiencing intermittent supply.
Wye - there are currently around 300 customers out of supply due to a burst water main affecting the network. Our teams are working hard to fix this but this is proving to be a complex repair.
Ulcombe - fewer than 20 customers are currently out of supply and we are delivering supplies of bottled water on a daily basis.
Cranbrook - less than 200 customers are experiencing intermittent supply.
Charing, Challock and Molash - customers are currently in supply, although around 500 properties may be experiencing low pressure and the Bottled Water Station remains open (details below).
Kemsing - a small number of customers are currently experiencing intermittent supply.
Coxheath - around 1,000 customers are currently without supply.
Headcorn - around 1,600 customers have intermittent supply, with those on higher ground most likely to be impacted.
