South East Water update.
We’re very sorry to customers who continue to have interruptions or low pressure in their water supply and know how frustrating it is, especially in very hot weather.
The situation
This weekend saw the first heatwave of the year and the hottest May day on record. As expected, demand for water has surged, with demand reaching 670 million litres of water yesterday (Monday, 25 May), which is almost 100 million litres more than the average for this time of the year.
We are very sorry for this and we’re doing everything we can to stabilise your water supplies.
What have we been doing?
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.
Our fleet of tankers has been working 24/7 putting additional water into the network in areas where demand has been extremely high and to support our stored water reservoirs.
In addition we have had some leaks and bursts, which while frustrating, is normal for a network of more than 9,000 miles in length and under high pressure at all times. Again, our teams have been working tirelessly to fix these.
In areas where there has been supply interruption – or where we believe issues may occur – we’re proactively delivering bottled water to our vulnerable customers on our Priority Services Register. We are additionally supporting critical care sites like hospitals and care homes where necessary as well as those with livestock.
We have also opened bottled water stations at the following locations for anyone that needs it:
Challock Village Hall, Blind Lane, Challock, Ashford, TN25 4AU
Altira Business Park, 6 The Boulevard, Herne Bay, CT6 6GZ
Looking ahead
The combination of high demand and normal levels of leaks and bursts has caused the intermittent supply issues. As the hot weather is set to last a few more days we’re asking for customers to help us to keep taps flowing locally. Therefore, we’re kindly asking customers to use water for essential purposes only: drinking, washing and cooking.
We’re encouraging customers to:
Stop using jet washes, hosepipes and sprinklers. Swap paddling pools for water blasters to keep kids cool and the car and patio can wait for a wash.
Think about where you can swap tap water for recycled water. Reuse water from baths, showers and sinks in the garden.
Act now, please do all you can to cut down on everything but essential water use, which is drinking, washing and cooking.
We now have a dedicated information portal, which you can access here; https://www.southeastwater.co.uk/service-updates/across-supply-region-spring-heatwave-2026-25-05-2026/
We are very sorry to customers who have had interruptions or low pressure in their water supply and appreciate how frustrating it is, especially in very hot weather.
We will continue to do all we can to prevent and resolve the issue