Thousands of homes and businesses across South East England are entering a fifth day of dealing with either no water or an intermittent supply, following severe disruptions blamed on Storm Goretti.
Storm Blamed for Widespread Disruption
The water company serving the region, South East Water (SEW), has declared a major incident in Kent and Sussex. The firm attributes the supply failure to Storm Goretti, which caused significant power cuts and a surge in burst pipes. This combination led to the company's drinking water storage tanks running critically low.
In an update on Wednesday 14 January 2026, SEW provided fluctuating figures. It initially stated supplies had been restored to 8,000 properties, but later revised the total to 16,000 properties across the two counties over the past 24 hours.
Specific Areas Still Struggling
However, the situation remains precarious. The company confirmed that 6,500 properties in Tunbridge Wells that had been on a "boosted system" lost their supplies for the day after water levels in local storage tanks dropped too low.
Matthew Dean, SEW's incident manager, stated: "Water supplies have returned to 11,500 properties in East Grinstead, a further 2,500 are returning to supply this afternoon with the remaining 2,500 later today." He added, "We are very sorry to all our customers who have been affected. We know and understand how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is."
Political Fallout and Customer Support
The ongoing crisis has triggered a significant political backlash. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for SEW to be stripped of its licence for "failing its customers over and over again." Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer labelled the situation "totally unacceptable" and revealed ministers are holding daily emergency meetings.
This incident follows a separate outage in December that left 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells without drinkable water for almost two weeks. SEW bosses have been recalled to appear before MPs to explain that previous failure. Alistair Carmichael, chairman of the parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee, said he and colleagues remained "deeply sceptical" about the company's version of events.
In response to the current crisis, SEW's customer care team is delivering bottled water to those on its Priority Services Register. The company is also supporting local hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for:
- Care homes
- Schools
- Medical care providers
- Livestock
Multiple bottled water stations continue to operate in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, and Maidstone. Location details can be found on South East Water's official website.
