SE Water Update 1 June 2026 Part 2

Monitoring closely

In other parts of our supply region, customers on higher ground, or at the far end of our networks, may also have low pressure, no water or have an intermittent supply.

This is as a result of the low levels in our storage tanks following the exceptionally high demand for drinking water during the hot weather last week. This is likely to continue today.

For the areas which have experienced supply issues in recent days and have now had water supply restored, there is a risk of further supply interruptions. These are:

• Cranbrook - around 165 customers have had supplies restored but may experience intermittent supply.

What have we been doing?

In areas where there has been supply interruption - or where we believe issues may occur - we’re continuing to proactively deliver bottled water to customers on our Priority Services Register.

We have delivered more than half a million litres of water to customers on our Priority Services Register and also delivered bottled water to critical care settings such as care homes, GP surgeries, pharmacies and dentists.

Additionally, we are continuing to support the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Herne Bay and an urgent care unit with a tanker. We’re also supporting Benenden Hospital.

We are also supporting those with livestock.

Our bottled water stations will reopen at 9am today at the following locations:

• YMCA, Melrose Close, Maidstone, ME15 6BD

• Staplehurst Village Hall, High Street, Staplehurst TN12 0BJ (run by Staplehurst Emergency Independent Group)

These may change to reflect the current situation, please check the website for up-to-date information.

We have also set up seven small walk-in community hubs in areas across Kent to help residents in smaller areas have access to a supply of bottled water. These are not being publicised on our website as this could increase traffic to the villages they are in. We have asked local councillors to help us inform local residents about these sites.

We planned for the hot weather by increasing output at our water treatment works across our supply area and putting extra water into the network. All our available water treatment works are currently working at full capacity.

We have also given out over one million litres of water at our bottled water stations across Kent.

We have been working 24/7 with our fleet of tankers to support our network where demand has been extremely high. So far, we have tankered 2,627,912.00 litres of water into the network.

In addition we have had some leaks and bursts, while this is normal for a network of 9,000 miles of pipework and 6 million joints, we have increased our teams who are out finding and fixing leaks.

Further advice

Bogus letters and notices

We're aware that there are a number of letters and notices being placed on social media and through letterboxes pretending to be from South East Water which are providing incorrect information.

To be clear, these notices are not from South East Water or Southern Water. Please ignore them. Customers should only follow information which is placed on our website and social media channels.

Schools

We have been delivering water to schools in affected areas this morning to ensure they can open as planned.

We are continuing to work closely with Kent County Council to ensure schools in areas affected by water supply interruptions are open.

Customers can find FAQs, covering questions such as using bottled water for washing and cleaning, details of bottled water stations and information about locations currently experiencing supply issues via our website.

We're sorry for the inconvenience caused and can reassure customers our teams are out working hard to resolve these issues as quickly as we can.