A major incident has been declared across Kent as tens of thousands of residents in South East England face a severe disruption to their water supply.
Scale of the Disruption
Kent County Council leader, Linden Kemkaran, took the decision on Monday 12 January 2026, citing a significant escalation in the number of affected households over the preceding 24 hours. The council is now implementing additional measures to prepare for potential further issues.
Water companies Southern Water and South East Water (SEW) have reported that approximately 30,000 properties across Kent, Surrey, and Sussex are impacted. According to SEW, this includes 16,500 properties in and around East Grinstead in Sussex, with parts of Tunbridge Wells also severely affected.
The crisis has forced the closure of several schools in Kent and Sussex on the first day of the new school week. This follows a previous incident last month where 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells endured days without any running water.
Causes and Company Response
The root causes of the widespread outages are twofold. The primary factor is the aftermath of Storm Goretti, which hit the UK last week. The freezing conditions have led to a surge in burst water mains across Sussex. Simultaneously, the storm and a related power cut at key pumping plants have hampered the ability to treat raw water at normal rates.
Mike Court, SEW's incident manager, apologised to customers experiencing no water, low pressure, or intermittent supply. He stated that repair teams are working "around the clock" to fix leaks, while water tankers are being used to pump supplies directly into the network to bolster reserves in the worst-hit zones.
Areas currently experiencing little to no supply include:
- Maidstone
- West Sussex and surrounding areas
- Tunbridge Wells
- Canterbury
- Whitstable
SEW has warned that supplies to East Grinstead and Blean in Maidstone may not be fully restored until Tuesday. Meanwhile, Southern Water has indicated that while supplies are currently maintained in Thanet, Sittingbourne, and Medway, reservoir levels are low, creating a "higher risk of supply issues in the coming days."
Support for Affected Residents
To support residents, multiple bottled water stations have been established. These will remain open until 10pm and are located at:
- Kings Centre - Moat Rd, East Grinstead RH19 3LN
- East Grinstead Sports Club - Saint Hill Rd, East Grinstead RH19 4JU
- East Court, College Lane, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 3LT
Furthermore, SEW's customer care team is prioritising deliveries of bottled water to vulnerable customers on its Priority Services Register, having already completed 5,700 deliveries over the weekend.
The declaration of a major incident underscores the severity of the situation, with authorities and utility companies scrambling to mitigate the impact of the combined severe weather and infrastructure failures on communities across the South East.
