People in Kent and Sussex have been asked to use water only for essential purposes after South East Water reported a surge in demand due to extreme heat. The company recorded 670 million litres of drinking water used on Monday, nearly 100 million litres more than the seasonal average, leading to outages for hundreds of homes over the past three days.
Essential Use Only
South East Water has requested customers to limit water usage to drinking, washing, and cooking. However, the company has not imposed a temporary use ban, which would prohibit activities like using hosepipes, filling paddling pools, watering gardens, or washing cars.
Matthew Dean, head of operations control at South East Water, said the extreme temperatures caused demand to surge, depleting storage reservoirs in several parts of Kent. He explained that the company had increased output at treatment works and deployed tankers around the clock, but some customers on higher ground or at network extremities may still experience low pressure or interruptions.
Customer Appeal
An email to customers urged them to stop using jet washers, hosepipes, and sprinklers, and to swap paddling pools for water blasters. It also asked customers not to wash cars and to reuse water from baths, showers, and sinks in the garden.
The email stated: “Think about where you can swap tap water for recycled water. Reuse water from baths, showers and sinks in the garden … Act now, please do all you can to cut down on everything but essential water use, which is drinking, washing and cooking.”
Broader Context
Last week, the House of Lords environment and climate change committee urged the government to launch a public campaign to reduce water usage, warning that the UK could face daily shortfalls of 5 billion litres by 2055 without action. Currently, people in the UK use up to 140 litres of water per day on average, far more than in other European countries. The government aims to reduce personal consumption to 122 litres per day by 2038.
Some customers expressed frustration. Brendan May, a South East customer, wrote on X: “Hilarious email from @sewateruk a couple of days into warm weather, in May, pleading ‘we need your help’ imploring people not to use much water as the system already can’t cope. We needed your help when we had no running water for days, twice. Sod off, stop lining your pockets.”
