Fury in Kent at South East Water's Outages During Heatwave

The Water Outage Crisis in Kent

"Spitting, fuming, angry and powerless" is how Pat Prestage describes her emotions after a water outage that has affected thousands of homes in Kent during the heatwave.

The Extent of the Outages

On Wednesday, 8,000 South East Water customers in Whitstable lost water, with 14,000 more in Tankerton, Ashford, and its surrounding areas facing an intermittent supply or low pressure. South East Water's incident manager, Matthew Dean, said on Thursday that 22,000 people had had water supply problems.

The Company's Response

The company blamed increased demand in the hot weather and asked people to use water only for essential purposes.

Customer Frustration

Prestage, 67, lives with a disability that makes her more vulnerable to events like this. At 6.30pm on Wednesday, Prestage's water supply in Whitstable went off. Her husband, Martin, tried to ring for an emergency delivery but could not get through to South East Water's emergency line. On Thursday morning, he spent more than an hour queueing for water at a bottle station.

The Impact on Residents

The Prestages are angry at the company's response, particularly its co-option of what the couple describe as the "blitz spirit" in asking customers with water to ease up on their usage to help those without.