Kent County Council has officially declared the ongoing water outages across the county a major incident. Areas including Canterbury, Harbledown, Maidstone, Hollingbourne, and Tunbridge Wells have been left dry yet again — forcing multiple schools to shut their doors.
Major Disruption to Homes and Schools
KCC leader Linden Kemkaren confirmed in a video on social media that both South East Water and Southern Water customers are affected by the wide-reaching supply issues.
“Of course, at KCC we are doing everything we can to support the efforts to get the situation sorted, including chairing the multi-agency meetings that track the water companies’ efforts and hold them to account,” she said.
“Frustratingly, we don’t know how long this will go on for or exactly how many of us will be affected.”
The water outage has forced several schools to close, including:
- Speldhurst C Of E Primary School
- Langton Green Primary School
- Claremont Primary School
- Skinners’ Academy (Tunbridge Wells)
- Harrietsham C Of E Primary School
- Ulcombe C Of E Primary School
- Tiger Primary School in Loose
- Leeds & Broomfield C Of E Primary School in Maidstone
Power Outages and Supply Failures At Root of Crisis
The trouble began Saturday when a fault at the Matts Hill Water Supply Works in Hartlip, near Sittingbourne, stopped water production.
UK Power Networks also reported a power outage affecting water sites in the Thanet area – hitting seaside towns Selling and Wingham.
Southern Water warns around 19,000 properties in Medway Towns, and villages near Sittingbourne and Maidstone (Boxley, Detling, Hartlip, Bobbing) could feel the pinch.
A Southern Water spokesperson said:
“We are doing everything we can to keep your water flowing and are taking all precautionary steps to protect your supply. We want to reassure customers this is currently working. There is currently no loss of supply for Southern Water customers in Kent.”
Meanwhile, South East Water reported some supplies returning in Hollingbourne, Headcorn, Ulcombe, Kingswood, Sutton Valence, and surrounding areas, though customers in higher locations might still struggle with intermittent supply as reservoir levels recover.
The company apologised for the ongoing issues:
“Supplies may be intermittent throughout today as the reservoir level regains storage. We are truly sorry for the issues having no water may have caused you, and are doing our best to return your supply to normal as quickly as we can.”
However, some households in Detling, Canterbury, and Tunbridge Wells are still experiencing little or no water pressure due to a power cut at a South East Water pumping station.
The provider vowed to fix the problem as soon as possible:
“Our team is on site trying to fix the problem as soon as possible, and hopefully water can then be returned. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and reassure customers that we are working hard to fix the issue.”
Postal Areas Impacted
- CT5 2AB
- ME14 4PA
- TN3 9BW
- TN4 8BG
- CT2 8JH
- TN12 0BW
- ME15 9UD
- ME17 1XD
- TN2 3PZ
