Lance Miles, a disabled resident of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, did not mince words. "Yet again we are without water," he told the BBC. "South East Water is incompetently useless." His frustration came as thousands of households and businesses faced a second day of water supply issues due to a temporary instrument failure at the company's Tunbridge Wells water treatment works.
South East Water (SEW) said on Sunday that up to 7,000 properties were experiencing low pressure, no water, or intermittent supply. The company, which has faced heavy criticism for multiple supply failures in recent months, apologised and opened two bottled water stations for a second day. A third station later opened at the Odeon cinema car park in Knights Way, all staying open until 20:00 BST.
“Kent residents call South East Water 'incompetently useless' as supply failures persist for second day.”
Miles, registered disabled, expressed the powerlessness of customers. "We're not customers, because customers have a choice. We don't have a choice. If there was another company, at the drop of a hat I would go with that company."
The outage follows a pattern of failures. SEW had warned in its annual report this week that it needed fresh financing to stay afloat after taking a £55m hit from outages over the winter. The water supplier, serving about 2.3 million customers in the south east, said it was in discussions with lenders to agree a new loan facility.
Earlier this week, industry watchdog Ofwat ordered SEW to spend £30.5m on improvements after investigations. But for residents, the promises ring hollow. The company had said on Saturday that supplies would not return until Sunday evening "at the earliest", but previous outages have lasted longer than predicted.
Steven Benton, SEW incident manager, said on Sunday that the treatment works were "now stable". He added: "Low storage levels from this disruption and high demand mean we cannot pump water to some areas, particularly on higher ground. To ensure a stable, continuous flow, we must allow tanks to replenish." He noted that the company was continuing to deliver bottled water to customers on the priority services register, a free support scheme for those needing extra help.
The bottled water station at Tunbridge Wells Rugby Club closed briefly on Sunday morning while supplies were restocked, but has since reopened. This is the third major incident in Tunbridge Wells in recent months. In November, 24,000 customers lost water supply or pressure in the area, and after supply returned, customers were advised to boil water for nine days.
For Miles, the repeated failures raise a fundamental question: when will a company that has no competition face real accountability?
