South East Water (SEW) has restored water supplies to the majority of homes in Kent after over a week of disruption.
Up to 30,000 homes have been left without water across Kent and Sussex throughout the scandal, which began on January 10, due to burst pipes and power cuts caused by Storm Goretti.
SEW confirmed running water had now returned to the majority of the 4,500 homes in Harrietsham and Kingswood on Sunday evening.
However, 500 homes are still experiencing intermittent supply, low pressure or no water at all following a fault at SEW’s treatment works.
SEW’s incident manager Matthew Dean said: “We’re sorry to customers currently impacted by the water supply interruptions across our network in Kent.
“Our team is on site to carry out repairs. We are working to complete this overnight to minimise disruption to customers.
“We would expect full restoration of supplies to impacted customers overnight.
“Tankers are still being used to inject water into storage tanks across Kent to continue balancing the network.
South East Water (SEW) has said water has returned to the majority of homes in Kent after over a week of chaos
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GETTY“Our leak repair teams are working around the clock to fix the leaks and bursts across Kent and Sussex, with extra resources available to help carry out repairs.”
Just last week, after growing pressure from Parliament to act, water regulator Ofwat launched an investigation into SEW on whether the firm had breached its licence condition.
The conditions breach would include failing to comply with customer service standards obligations and offering appropriate support to affected customers during supply interruptions.
Lynn Parker, Ofwat senior director for enforcement, said: “The last six weeks have been miserable for businesses and households across Kent and Sussex with repeated supply problems.
Residents were forced to visit designated ‘water collection points’ pick up bottled water amid the shortage | GETTY
“We know that this has had a huge impact on all parts of daily life and hurt businesses, particularly in the run-up to the festive period.
“That is why we need to investigate and to determine whether the company has breached its licence condition.”
If Ofwat finds the firm has breached licence conditions, it has the power to fine up to 10 per cent of the supplier’s annual turnover or revoke their licence entirely.
Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin has piled the pressure on SEW chief executive David Hinton to resign after weeks of water supply issues.
Just last month, 24,000 properties in and around Tunbridge Wells were left without drinking water for nearly two weeks. November also saw water outages for thousands.
South East Water chief executive David Hinton sat before a select affairs committee earlier this month
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PA
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey questioned Sir Keir Starmer during last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
He said the water firm “keeps failing its customers over and over again” and asked if the Government would “strip them of their licence”.
The Prime Minister condemned the situation as “clearly totally unacceptable”, adding that ministers have chaired daily emergency meetings during the crisis to “hold the company to account”.
“We’ve also doubled the compensation rates for individuals and businesses and we’re absolutely clear the company must urgently invest in infrastructure and we’ll publish the water White Paper in due course,” he added.
Mr Hinton, who has already been grilled by MPs, has been recalled to answer further questions in front of select committee MPs. The company’s chair, Chris Train, has also been called upon to give evidence.