The South East Water update published at 5.30pm yesterday afternoon on ongoing water supply issues for Tunbridge Wells sets out detailed information about the company’s revised strategy, FAQs, further planned outage and support plan.

The update is accompanied by 23 Frequently Asked Questions and replies, including a question about why hasn’t CEO, David Hinton, issued a statement – the reply is:

“David Hinton remains committed to resolving the immediate issues facing customers in both Kent and Sussex, whilst continuing to seek to obtain the investment to deliver the much needed improvements in resilience to the South East Water network, detailed in the company’s Business Plan.”

The update states:

“We have changed our strategy to fix the supply issues in Tunbridge Wells. Following the freeze/thaw event, our storage tanks have struggled to recover.

“We have developed a new plan that will allow us to refill the storage tank to a much higher level. This will mean keeping the booster pumps off for a further 36 hours. This is so we can work to increase the levels to a point where you have a consistent water supply from Friday morning.”

South East Water explained that the previous plan to refill the network wasn't working fast enough and that in order to fix this permanently, it needs to let the storage tank refill to a much higher level. To do this it needs to keep the pumps off to stop the water draining out, allowing the utility to build up enough pressure to restore a consistent supply from Friday morning.

South East Water says it is launching a major operation to deliver bottled water supplies directly to every affected home - deliveries have been taking place since Wednesday evening (14 January) and overnight into today. Householders do not need to be home to receive this; it will be left it on doorsteps and where deliveries cannot be made directly to a front door (e.g., gated communities or blocks of flats), it will be left in the safest accessible place.

The water company is also also delivering heavy duty reusable ‘grab bags’ which contain non-drinking water for toilet flushing to every home. The bags can be refilled these with non-drinking water from garden water butts, ponds or other external sources. Deliveries of the grab bags are still ongoing.

South East Water is opening a third bottled water station at midday 12pm today and will be sharing details of the location of this here shortly.

The update also sets out a total of 23 FAQs to answer any queries covering the following issues:

• the further outage
• deliveries and bottled water
• compensation
• operations and technical
• future and planning

Questions and answers on operations and technical include:

Q. Is the outage due to a lack of investment in the pipes? If not, why do other companies not have these issues?

A.We invest millions of pounds every year upgrading our network. However, the recent weather conditions involved a rapid “freeze” followed by a sudden “thaw”. This causes ground movement and snaps pipes regardless of their age. Sadly, this is a national issue, and water companies across the UK are currently facing similar challenges.

Q. You regularly rely on neighbouring water companies for bulk water supplies as you do not have enough water storage. Why can’t you provide enough water for your own supply area?

A. Water companies across the UK operate as a regional network. It is standard practice to share resources and move water between regions to ensure resilience. This is a planned part of how we manage water resources.

Q. Water mains and services are buried at least 900mm deep so they don’t freeze at this depth. If you have some assets above ground they should be lagged or heated.

A. You are right that mains are buried deep to prevent the water inside freezing. However, the issue isn’t always the water freezing; it is the ground around the pipe expanding and contracting due to the temperature changes. This shift in the ground puts immense pressure on the pipes and causes them to leak and burst.

Q. At what point does this become a major incident where the army or the government step in?

A. We have formally declared this as a major incident. This allows us to work directly with the Local Resilience Forum (LRF), which includes the Police, Fire Service, Councils and Health Services, to coordinate the response. We are already utilising all available support.

Questions and answers on future and planning include:

Why are you allowing thousands of new houses to be built when you cannot supply the current customers you have?

Water companies have a statutory duty to connect new homes approved by local councils. However, we plan our water resources 50 years in advance to ensure we can meet this demand. The current issue is not a lack of water resources, but a failure caused by the recent weather conditions.

Are current assets fit for purpose? What are you doing about this?

We are constantly replacing and upgrading ageing and damaged pipes. However, extreme freeze/thaw events are becoming more frequent. We are reviewing our winter resilience plans to see how we can better protect our network against these sharp temperature changes in the future.

What are you doing to make sure this doesn’t happen throughout winter?

We have increased our leakage teams, are using satellite technology to spot leaks underground, and are monitoring weather patterns closely to prepare our network for future cold weather.

South East Water says in the latest update published today at 12.02 pm :

“We are really sorry for the continued water supply problems in your area and we thank you for your patience.

“We are on track with our plan to stabilise the network ready for the morning and we are making good progress. You may see additional tankers in the area topping up the system….

“Our third bottled water station is currently been set up and more details will be sent on the location once this is open.”

The next update will be provided at 5.00pm today.

Click here to access the update issued at 5.34pm yesterday in full.