Thousands in Kent lose water supply during heatwave, company apologises
The Story
A water outage in Kent during a heatwave has left thousands of South East Water customers without supply or with low pressure. The company blamed increased demand and apologised for the disruption. Residents expressed anger over the company’s response and its performance.
Key Facts
- On Wednesday, 8,000 customers in Whitstable lost water, and 14,000 more in Tankerton, Ashford and surrounding areas faced intermittent supply or low pressure.
- South East Water incident manager Matthew Dean said on Thursday that 22,000 people had had water supply problems.
- The company asked customers to use water only for essential purposes.
- Pat Prestage, 67, who lives with a disability, lost water at 6.30pm on Wednesday. Her husband could not get through to the company’s emergency line.
- MPs accused South East Water’s senior executives of incompetence earlier this month, leading to the resignation of the company’s chair and chief executive.
- Kayce Snellgrove, 90, who is on a priority list, said she had not received any water delivery since Wednesday evening.
- The government aims to cut water use in England by 20% per person per day by 2038, with a target of 110 litres per person per day by 2050.
- A recent report said an urgent campaign to reduce water use was needed to avoid shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055 in England.
- South East Water said it was doing everything it could to get treated water into storage reservoirs and apologised to customers.
Conflicting Reports
No conflicting reports identified in the source article.
Still Unclear
No open questions identified in the source article.
Misconceptions
No widespread misconceptions addressed in the source article.
Key Figures
- Pat Prestage, 67, disabled resident of Whitstable
- Martin Prestage, husband of Pat Prestage
- Matthew Dean, South East Water incident manager
- Kayce Snellgrove, 90-year-old resident on priority list
- Debbie Finch, daughter of Kayce Snellgrove
- Caroline Wade, single parent and PR business owner in Whitstable
- Ayhan Betez, 56-year-old semi-retired police officer
Sources: The Guardian
