Tunbridge Kent Water Crisis “Predictable and Preventable,” Says Regulator After 60,000 Affected
Residents in Tunbridge Wells have been warned to expect continued disruption to their water supply until Tuesday as pressure on the local network persists following cold weather damage and Storm Goretti.
Earlier this week, South East Water said freezing temperatures had triggered a series of burst mains, cutting supplies to around 6,500 customers. Although water was later restored, the arrival of Storm Goretti on Thursday slowed the refilling of storage tanks, leaving demand higher than supply.
On Friday afternoon, the company said that until the network stabilises, customers should expect normal water flow in the mornings, followed by little or no supply in the afternoons and evenings.
A spokesperson for South East Water said the storm caused outages at several water treatment works and led to widespread river water quality issues.
“This is not the level of service we want to provide, but we believe this is the quickest way to return supplies to normal,” the spokesperson said. “We expect levels to be stable by 13 January.”
Leak repair teams are continuing to work around the clock, the company added. Bottled water is being made available at Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club, while priority customers are receiving home deliveries.
Regulator criticism over earlier failure
The latest disruption follows a much larger incident last year that left tens of thousands of homes without safe drinking water, which regulators now say should never have happened.
Around 24,000 households in the Tunbridge Wells area were without drinking water for up to two weeks from 30 November after a failure at the Pembury water treatment works. Initially taps ran dry, before a boil water notice was issued warning residents not to drink the water, give it to pets, brush teeth, wash children or bathe with open wounds.
Marcus Rink, chief inspector at the Drinking Water Inspectorate, told MPs that the problem was foreseeable weeks before the failure occurred.
He said inspectors noticed a “clear deterioration” at the plant as early as 9 November and that South East Water failed to carry out proper testing requested by the regulator. He also said the company did not install a filter that would have prevented heavy metals from entering the supply.
“It should not have been a surprise,” Rink told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee.
The failure was traced to a coagulant chemical used to purify the water, which stopped working. Rink said inspectors believed the original chemical would have continued to work if appropriate testing and monitoring had been in place.
South East Water last carried out suitable testing in July, he said, adding that the company was effectively “flying blind” by relying on manual checks rather than electronic systems capable of identifying problems in real time.
Ageing infrastructure and limited sanctions
The Pembury treatment works is the only facility supplying Tunbridge Wells and has been under an enforcement notice since last year over risks linked to bacteria and pesticide contamination.
At the committee hearing, South East Water chief executive David Hinton said the failure was unexpected and caused by a sudden change in raw water chemistry that had not been seen in two decades.
He also cited increased household water use since 2020, drought conditions linked to climate change, and the lack of a backup chemical as contributing factors.
Hinton argued that reliance on a single treatment works increased risk for customers and suggested that regulator infrastructure standards played a role in limiting resilience.
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Rink told MPs that the inspectorate had limited powers to take further action once the company issued a boil water notice and informed residents of the risk.
He said the regulator had required South East Water to install microfiltration to prevent residual aluminium entering clean water tanks, but that work has still not been completed.
“We do not feel we have a clear pathway under current legislation to further sanction the company for under performance,” he said.
Financial pressure on the company
South East Water has also faced mounting financial pressure. Last year, it sought a £200m cash injection from investors after being placed on a watchlist by Ofwat over concerns about its financial resilience.
As customers continue to face intermittent supplies this week, regulators and MPs are expected to maintain scrutiny over the company’s infrastructure, monitoring practices and ability to prevent similar failures in the future.
