Chaos in UK city as residents spend FOURTH day with out water and faculties compelled to shut | UK | News | EUROtoday

Pressure is rising on the chief govt of South East Water (SEW) as 1000’s of individuals in an English city have been left with out water since Saturday. As many as 25,000 folks had been left with no water on Saturday attributable to a difficulty on the therapy works, with the scarcity coming simply three years after the same incident over the Christmas of 2022.

As many as 14,000 houses stay with out water, with GP surgical procedures, faculties and companies compelled to shut and plenty of households struggling to flush the bathroom, have showers or entry to faucet water. Mike Martin, the Liberal Democrat MP for the realm, described the scarcity and its response as “absolute chaos” as he labelled the dealing with by chief govt Dave Hinton as “pathetic.”

He informed the Daily Express: “This is a public health issue now. The water stations are like 28 days later. We had to get the police down to manage crowds at distribution sites, such was the size of the crowds attending.

“After the 2022 shortage, they should have a crisis management plan ready to go but they don’t. I have personally had to tell them where to put water distribution sites. They do not know what they are doing from a technical sense and what they say they are going to do doesn’t happen.”

He added: “After what happened in 2022, our expectations were low, but they have surpassed them. It could not be worse.

“Nobody has seen the CEO Dave Hinton, where is he? He has done no media, he has not been to the water distribution sites. Where is he?

“This guy earns £500,000 a year but he calls me last night upset because I have called for him to be held accountable or at least display professionalism. It is pathetic and that is why I have called on him to resign.”

Water stations have been set up around the area, providing residents with 12 two-litre bottles of water, but many have complained that there is not enough water on site to go around.

Chris Godsmark, 58, is one of six people in his household and says that the level of water provided is insufficient.

He said: “It is shambolic really, just unbelievable. A lot of families will struggle to make the amount of water given at distribution sites last when they need to drink, wash and flush the toilet.

“The whole response has been ridiculous, just so unprofessional. The first day the water station was set up in Tonbridge – a different town 15 minutes away!”

Mr Godsmark, referred to as on SEW and Dave Hinton to do extra to indicate that they care concerning the points being skilled by 1000’s and that they’re working to finish the scarcity as quickly as they will.

He added: “What makes me really angry, the website doesn’t even have it on the front page. It has a hosepipe ban, in December when it has been pouring it down and then they put a little bit at the bottom.

“Nobody has heard anything from the CEO. He is invisible on the website, interviews, he has not been seen at the distribution sites. Where is Dave Hinton? I have a better chance of finding Lord Lucan.

“It is as if it is a minor issue. Is this what Britain has come to in 2025 where we can’t even flush our toilets?

“We don’t even know what has gone wrong. They say it is something to do with dodgy chemicals. Does anybody think they will now get the right ones? Does anybody trust what is coming out of the tap to be ok to drink?

“We deserve better and we want compensation. What about all these businesses that have had to shut for 3 days over the Christmas period? What about people having to take time off work to go and collect water?

“We would expect a crisis emergency response, but it is a station in a car park somewhere that soon runs out.”

Promises that water can be restored on Tuesday fell quick, with SEW telling residents {that a} additional replace can be supplied at 6pm, leaving Mr Godsmark and others livid and feeling doubtful concerning the firm’s acknowledged purpose for the preliminary outage.

South East Water’s incident supervisor Matthew Dean mentioned: “After recharging the network slowly through the day, we have seen a recurrence of the water quality issues that caused the initial water treatment shutdown.

“This means that we are currently very unlikely to be able to reintroduce supply to those customers that are still without water.

“Our bottled water stations remain open today, the locations that are currently open are:

• Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, St John’s Rd, Royal Tunbridge Wells TN4 9TX
• RCP Parking, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 5TP
• Odeon Cinema Knights Way, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3UW

“Our customer care team and Water Direct are continuing to deliver bottled water to more than 2,000 of our most vulnerable customers on our PSR register.

“To sign up for our Priority Services Register customers can visit southeastwater.co.uk/psr

“We are continuing to move water around our network and have tankered more than 6.5 million litres of water into the town to keep as many customers in supply as possible and have handed out more than 400,000 litres of bottled water.

Further information is also available on our website at: https://aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk/ ”