Heatwave affects water supply for thousands

Up to 3,000 customers in Kent are experiencing water supply issues due to the recent heatwave, according to a water company.

South East Water apologised on Wednesday to households and businesses in Whitstable, Seasalter and surrounding areas who were experiencing no water or low pressure.

The company said it was "working hard to restore supplies as quickly as possible", using tankers to inject water directly into its network.

It added that further updates would be shared on Thursday.

Incident manager Nick Bell confirmed the company had moved a bottled water station to Sainsbury's on Reeves Way in Chestfield, Whitstable.

This has now closed, but South East Water said it planned for the station to reopen at 08:30 BST on Thursday.

A bottled water station was opened in Whitstable on Wednesday afternoon but had to be closed "due to the large volume of traffic to the site making it unsuitable", Mr Bell said.

Mr Bell added the company is also delivering bottled water to customers in the area on its Priority Services Register.

Whitstable resident Max Briccolani told BBC Radio Kent: "We haven't had any water since early afternoon.

"We were told that the pressure would be low and it went down to a trickle and went off."

Meanwhile, Hayley Birch said her family members had not been able to flush the toilet.

"I've come straight from work to get water and been told I can only have eight bottles," she said.

"You can't shower in that. And we have pets that need water, so most of this is going down the toilet."

A South East Water spokesperson said: "We currently have pressure issues at our site which means we are unable to pump the water."

Incident manager Steve Andrews added: "Demand for drinking water in Kent has been consistently higher than the monthly average every day for the past 17 days.

"Unfortunately, this increased demand in the hot weather has caused our drinking water storage levels to run very low."

He added: "We know water supply interruptions are disruptive and we're sorry to all customers impacted by this.

"We're working to restore their water supply as soon as possible."

Temperatures reached 33.5C in Kent on Tuesday.

South East Water renewed an urgent plea on Wednesday for residents to reduce water usage.

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