Households and businesses supplied by South East Water continue to be without water or suffer water supply interruptions – a range of areas continue to be affected according to the latest updates published on the water company’s AquAlerter map pages on its website.

The latest updates published at 8:16 am this morning which relate to interruptions say the next updates will be published from 2.30 pm this afternoon. Affected areas include:

• Yopps Green, Plaxtol, Sevenoaks, Kent,
• Harbledown, Blean Canterbury, Kent & surrounding areas
• Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
• Loose and surrounding areas
• East Grinstead and surrounding areas

The same message is set out for all areas as follows:

“Our teams have been working throughout the night and the reservoir levels are increasing to a point where some customers will start to see their water return. However this will take a considerable amount of time due to the area the network covers. When it does return it may also be intermittent for a while until the reservoir completely recovers.” 

Tunbridge Wells - situation is "ever changing and we will continue to update you as we know more"

Tunbridge Wells continues to be particularly impacted – the latest update published at at 9:15 am says:

“We are so sorry that customers in the Tunbridge wells area who were without water yesterday, Water will return this morning after the reservoir levels increased overnight however will be intermittent throughout the day . The situation is ever changing and we will continue to update you as we know more.

“Our bottled water station at St. Marks Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells TN2 5LS will be open at 9am until 10pm tonight.”

The next update for Tunbridge Wells will be provided on Wednesday 14th Jan 2026 at 2:00 pm., the website says.

The ongoing problems were the subject of an emergency debate allowed by the Speaker in the House of Commons yesterday in response to an urgent question by Mims Davies, the MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield asking the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make a statement on the ongoing interruption to water supplies.

Minister tells MPs disruption comes against "backdrop of previous outages and continued poor performance by South East Water"

Minister Emma Hardy MP told the House:

“This is an unacceptable supply failure, particularly for residents in Tunbridge Wells, who face significant disruption for the second time in as many months. We are holding South East Water to account as the company responsible for the areas most affected. We have been clear in our daily meetings with the company that restoring supply must be the company’s absolute priority, that every possible measure must be taken to protect vulnerable customers, and that those affected must receive proper compensation for the disruption they have experienced.

“Far too many people are unable to wash safely or have adequate sanitation in their homes. Far too many businesses are being affected. The supply issues in Kent and Sussex have been caused by several short-term factors, including a period of prolonged cold weather, which led to a large number of burst pipes and water mains across the network, and operational issues at water treatment sites caused by Storm Goretti.

“However, the disruption in the south-east comes against a backdrop of previous outages and continued poor performance by South East Water in maintaining a reliable service for its customers.

“Yet further evidence that the water system is broken”

Describing the situation as “yet further evidence that the water system is broken” the Minister continued:

“For too long, water companies have failed to maintain their infrastructure and build the resilience needed to withstand events like this. Customers are paying the price for years of under-investment, and the Government will fix this through our wholesale water reforms Those include stronger rules on maintenance and resilience, backed by £104 billion of private investment for infrastructure upgrades and the creation of a new single powerful regulator.”

Mimms Davies replied thar her constituents had again been left with poor, misleading or no communication from South East Water, with too many vulnerable people—even those on the priority services register—left waiting. In addition, water bottle stations had been poorly organised, with little or no clear provision for hard-hit rural villages and areas, forcing residents to make long drives. “There have been failures to open or stations running dry far too quickly, creating huge gridlock, frustration and anger, “ she added.

She went on to ask what penalties or sanctions would the water company face, and what level of compensation would they actually receive, commenting:

“Given the numerous and repeated serious failings on the part of South East Water in just the last five years, does the Minister agree with me and with many others that South East Water urgently needs new leadership that is capable of addressing emergencies properly and, crucially, restoring much-needed confidence in the company’s ability to manage its systems, infrastructure and water supplies and to provide the service that is needed, now and in the future?”

Shadow Environment Minister. Dr Neil Hudson MP for Epping Forest joined the debate, saying that Conservative colleagues in Kent and Sussex had given repeated accounts of poor communication and logistics from South East Water, including bulk sharing issues with Southern Water, saying:

“We have been told that constituents have travelled to and queued at vital bottle collection points, only to find that no water has been delivered.”

Emma Hardy told the House:

“it is about moving from the system that we have at the moment, which is “fix on failure”, to proactive maintenance. Part of the reason for this problem—aside from the short-term impacts of freeze and thaw—is that there is not enough long-term resilience in the system. There are too many points at which it can easily fail.”

Tunbridge Wells MP says "leadership of South East Water suffers from an optimism bias, with appalling risk management"

Photo: South East Water CEO David Hinton

Mike Martin, the MP for Tunbridge Wells who has played a very active role in helping his constituents and raised his concerns about South East Water forcefully, commented:

“The Minister knows from personal experience that the leadership of South East Water suffers from an optimism bias, with appalling risk management. The leaders have no idea what is actually going on. During the call the Minister and I were on just an hour and a half ago, they said two things that were immediately proven to be false. That is not necessarily because they are lying, but because they do not know what they are doing. Plainly, the leadership of South East Water suffers from groupthink.”