'Major incident' declared in Kent as thousands without water across South East England

Tens of thousands of people across South East England are without water, as Kent County Council (KCC) declared a major incident.

South East Water (SEW) blamed the outages on Storm Goretti and cold weather causing burst pipes and power cuts.

Linden Kemkaran, leader of KCC, declared a major incident across the county on Monday morning, saying more households have been impacted in the previous 24 hours.

The issue forced a number of schools in Kent and Sussex to close on the first day of the week.

It comes after 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, spent days without any running water, and almost two weeks without drinkable water last month.

Several thousand homes and businesses in Tunbridge Wells have been told their supply may not return to normal until the middle of the week.

Here is what you need to know.

Where is affected?

Around 30,000 properties across the two counties have been impacted, South East Water said in a statement to Sky News.

"This includes 16,500 properties in East Grinstead and the surrounding areas in Sussex, with parts of Tunbridge Wells also affected, along with some localised issues in other parts of Kent," the company said.

The affected areas include:

• Maidstone
• West Sussex and surrounding areas
• Tunbridge Wells
• Canterbury
• Whitstable

SEW said supplies to East Grinstead, West Sussex, and Blean, Maidstone, were not expected to return until Tuesday.

Southern Water said on 11 January that households in Thanet, Sittingbourne, Medway and surrounding areas are currently not experiencing a loss of water supply, but some drinking water storage reservoirs are at low levels due to Storm Goretti.

The company said this could mean there is a "higher risk of supply issues in the coming days" but it is "taking action now to do all we can to prevent that".

What caused the problem?

SEW said Storm Goretti, which hit the UK last week, affected its ability to "treat the raw water at the normal rate at our main Sussex water treatment works".

It said this, coupled with the outbreak of burst water mains due to freezing conditions across Sussex, means its drinking water storage levels are running low.

SEW incident manager Matthew Dean said: "We're very sorry to our customers across Kent and Sussex who continue to experience issues with their drinking water supply, including no water, intermittent supply interruptions or low pressure."

"We are using 21 tankers to pump water directly into our network to increase the amount of water available in the affected areas and our leak repair teams are working around the clock to fix the leaks and bursts across Kent and Sussex, with extra resources available to help carry out repairs," he added.

He said SEW's customer care team was "delivering bottled water to the customers on our Priority Services Register who are most in need".

"We are also supporting hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for care homes, schools, medical care providers and to support livestock," he said.

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'Extremely frustrating'

Dave and Valerie Matson have lived in and around Tunbridge Wells for 55 years. They told Sky News that the current water outages are "extremely frustrating".

"I know it's jolly cold, but this should not happen," Mrs Matson said.

Mr Matson, a former director of a company, said it has only been a short while since residents in Tunbridge Wells were last affected by water outages.

"It destroyed Tunbridge Wells in the run-up to Christmas," he said.

"Literally all the shops were shut... and the restaurants, normally they are rammed in December, but they have lost thousands and thousands. I think it is absolutely appalling."

Mr Matson put the problems down to "greed and incompetence" of water companies, adding: "They have got a duty to their customers, they have got to talk to their shareholders and say 'we have got to spend money, we have got to do what we should have done over the years'."

He added: "We can cope with it, but I feel so sorry for the vulnerable people and businesses. It is hard enough for shops in this county and across the UK."

'The impact has been massive'

No running water means cancelled clients for Hannah Sykes, who runs Rush hair salon in East Grinstead, in West Sussex, where 16,500 households and businesses started the working week without water.

"The impact has been massive," she said, having had no supply all weekend, her busiest time.

"This would be when the people from the end of November, beginning of December, would be returning to us. So it's a big weekend for us to have to close and still have no date of when we're reopening," she told Sky News.

"Also, it means we don't have toilets. And we can't offer drinks to clients."

"This is the second time this has happened to us now. Last time it was three to four days we were without water and had to close."

She said she had not received compensation.

Hannah says she's had "minimal" contact from South East Water, who she feels aren't taking responsibility. Her last update came just after 4.30pm offering "no further updates".

Where are bottled water stations located?

Multiple bottled water stations have been set up in the area to distribute water to local residents until supplies are fully restored.

SEW said its customer care team is also delivering bottled water to the customers on our Priority Services Register who are most in need and we have carried out 5,700 deliveries of bottled water over the weekend.

The company said the following stations are open until 10pm:

• 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

• Tunbridge St Marks Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells TN2 5LS

Recurring problems at South East Water

In 2023, SEW was found to be the worst company for supply interruptions in the UK. Since then there have been multiple high-profile outages.

The last was in December 2025, when 24,000 people suffered days without water in Tunbridge Wells after a "water quality issue" at the Pembury Water Treatment Works.

Earlier this month, chief executive of SEW David Hinton was criticised by MPs for a "fundamentally lacking" human response to the crisis during an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee hearing.

One committee member said they were "quite shocked" at the "lack of accountability" the chief executive was taking for the incident, although he did begin his questioning with an apology to customers.

He blamed a lack of infrastructure in the South East for the failures and said that the risks are "inevitable" without investment.

(c) Sky News 2026: 'Major incident' declared in Kent as thousands without water across South East England