A major water supply failure that left tens of thousands of households in Kent without safe drinking water for a fortnight was both foreseen and could have been prevented, the UK's water regulator has told MPs.
A Fortnight Without Safe Water
The crisis began on 30 November last year, when a failure at the Pembury water treatment centre cut off supplies to approximately 24,000 homes in the Tunbridge Wells area. Initially, taps ran completely dry. Subsequently, residents were placed under a stringent boil water notice.
South East Water explicitly warned that tap water was unsuitable for drinking, giving to pets, brushing teeth, washing children, or bathing with an open wound. This alarming situation persisted for two weeks, severely disrupting daily life for affected families.
Regulator Points to Preventable Failures
Marcus Rink, the chief inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), informed the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee that problems at the ageing plant were evident weeks earlier. He stated there was a "noticeable deterioration" at the site from 9 November.
Rink asserted that the company failed to conduct proper testing requested by the regulator and neglected to install a crucial filter to prevent dangerous heavy metals from entering the supply. "It shouldn't have been a surprise," he told MPs.
The core issue was the failure of a coagulant chemical used to purify water. Rink's inspectors believe that with appropriate testing and data, the original chemical would have worked. Instead, South East Water had last performed adequate tests in July and was "flying blind," manually collecting data instead of using real-time electronic monitoring.
Company Blames Climate and Lifestyle Changes
In a defensive hearing, South East Water's chief executive, David Hinton, presented a different narrative. He claimed the incident was an "unexpected failure" caused by a change in raw water chemistry not seen in 20 years.
Hinton pointed to broader pressures, including the climate crisis—citing a drought that depleted the reservoir—and customer "lifestyle changes" post-2020, with people spending more time at home. He also criticised infrastructure standards that left Tunbridge Wells reliant on a single treatment works, a site already under a DWI enforcement notice for contamination risks.
"We should have had a backup chemical," Hinton conceded, while shifting blame towards regulatory frameworks.
Limited Powers and Financial Precarity
The DWI revealed it has little power to sanction the company further, as it issued the boil notice before formal action could be taken. The regulator had ordered the installation of a microfiltration unit, which remains unfitted, but lacks the legislative tools to enforce it.
This incident unfolds against a backdrop of severe financial strain for South East Water. The company was recently placed on a watchlist by Ofwat and required a £200 million cash injection from investors to avoid collapse, a situation mirroring the precarious state of several UK water firms.
The Tunbridge Wells water crisis exposes critical vulnerabilities in monitoring, infrastructure investment, and regulatory enforcement within the UK's water industry, leaving thousands of customers to bear the consequences.
