Thousands of Kent Homes Left Without Water After Treatment Fault

Key Points

• Almost 8,000 households across Sandhurst, Pembury and South Tunbridge Wells in Kent are without running water.
• South East Water says an “instrument failure” triggered a temporary shutdown at Pembury Water Treatment Works.
• Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin has been providing regular updates on the outage via social media.
• A free bottled water station has opened at a Tesco superstore on Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells, with a second site due to open shortly.
• Bottled water stations operated until 10pm on Saturday and reopened at 7am on Sunday.
• Residents in South Tunbridge Wells and Pembury are unlikely to have their supply restored until Sunday.
• South East Water says low storage tank levels and high demand are preventing water reaching customers, particularly those on higher ground.
• The utility firm has apologised to affected customers and thanked them for their patience.
• South East Water, which serves around 2.3 million customers across the South East of England, has faced repeated supply failures in recent years, including disruption in Kent in late May.
• Ofwat has this week ordered South East Water to pay a £30.5 million redress package over multiple customer service failures.

Tunbridge Wells (Britain Today News) July 18, 2026 – Almost 8,000 homes are without water in Kent, according to the area’s Member of Parliament, after South East Water confirmed that an “instrument failure” had caused a temporary shutdown at one of its treatment works. The disruption has hit households in Sandhurst, Pembury and South Tunbridge Wells, prompting the water company to open emergency bottled water stations while engineers work to restore normal service.

What Caused the Water Outage in Kent?

South East Water has confirmed that the root of the problem lies at Pembury Water Treatment Works, where a piece of equipment failed, forcing a temporary shutdown of the site. Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin, who has been keeping constituents informed throughout the disruption, explained the technical cause in a post on X. He said “the cause of the outage” was that a “piece of equipment at Pembury Water Treatment works failed”.

The failure had a knock-on effect across the local network, reducing the amount of water available to pump out to homes and businesses in the surrounding area. While South East Water later said the treatment site was operational again, the damage to supply levels had already been done, leaving thousands of properties without a reliable water source.

How Many Homes Are Affected in Tunbridge Wells, Sandhurst and Pembury?

The scale of the disruption is significant. Mike Martin said in a post on X that

“overall we have approaching 8,000 households out of water in Sandhurst, Pembury and South Tunbridge Wells”.

That figure represents a substantial portion of the local population and underlines the severity of the incident, which has left families without access to running water for washing, cooking and drinking.

The affected areas span both urban and semi-rural parts of the Tunbridge Wells constituency, meaning the impact has been felt by a broad cross-section of residents, from those in town-centre properties to households in more outlying communities.

What Has Mike Martin MP Said About the Outage?

Mr Martin has taken a prominent role in communicating updates to residents while South East Water works to resolve the fault. In his statements, he has combined details of the technical cause with practical information for those affected, including the opening hours of bottled water stations and expectations around when supply might return.

He said bottled water stations were open until 10pm on Saturday and would be opening again at 7am on Sunday, giving residents a clear window in which they could collect emergency supplies. He also warned constituents to manage their expectations around a swift resolution, adding that households in South Tunbridge Wells and Pembury were unlikely to have water back until Sunday.

His updates have served as a key source of information for residents navigating the disruption, particularly given the practical difficulties of going without running water for an extended period.

Where Can Residents Access Free Bottled Water?

South East Water has confirmed a free bottled water station is open at a Tesco superstore in Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells, giving affected households somewhere to collect emergency supplies while their taps remain dry. The company has also said another bottled water station is set to open shortly, suggesting it is scaling up its emergency response as the scale of the disruption becomes clearer.

For many households, particularly those with young children, elderly residents or vulnerable family members, these stations represent a vital stopgap measure until mains supply can be restored. The provision of free bottled water is a standard emergency response used by UK water companies during major supply interruptions, though it does little to ease the broader inconvenience of being unable to bathe, flush toilets normally, or run washing machines and dishwashers.

When Will Water Supply Be Restored?

According to South East Water, the timeline for full restoration depends on stabilising storage tank levels across the network. The company said that “to stabilise tank levels, your water supply will not return until at least tomorrow morning,” indicating that some households could remain without water into the following day.

Mike Martin echoed this cautious timeline in his own updates, telling constituents in South Tunbridge Wells and Pembury that they were unlikely to see their water return until Sunday. The exact time at which individual households will see their supply restored is likely to vary depending on their location, particularly whether they sit on higher ground, which has been identified as a particular pressure point in the network.

What Has South East Water Said About the Disruption?

South East Water has issued a formal apology to those affected by the outage. In a statement, the company said:

“We are very sorry to all customers affected by this issue and thank our customers for their patience during this period.”

The firm also provided a more detailed explanation of the ongoing pressure problems affecting the network, even after the treatment works fault had been addressed. It said the site was running again but

“low storage tank levels and high demand means we cannot pump water to customers, especially on higher ground, causing low pressure, no water, or intermittent supply”.

This explanation highlights a common challenge in water network management: even once the initial technical fault is fixed, restoring normal service can take considerably longer as storage tanks refill and pressure stabilises across a wide distribution area.

Why Are Water Pressure and Supply Levels Still Low?

The core issue, as outlined by South East Water, is a combination of depleted storage tank levels and continued high demand from customers. With less water available in the system than usual, the company has been forced to prioritise stabilising tank levels over immediately restoring supply to all customers, particularly those in higher-elevation areas where water pressure is naturally more difficult to maintain.

This means that even though the treatment works itself is reportedly operational again, the wider network has not yet caught up, leaving many households with low pressure, no water at all, or an intermittent supply that comes and goes unpredictably. South East Water has indicated that this stabilisation process will take time, with full restoration not expected until at least the following morning.

Has South East Water Faced Similar Issues Before?

This is not the first time South East Water customers have experienced significant supply disruption. Homes and businesses in Kent suffered supply failures in late May, only weeks before the latest incident in Sandhurst, Pembury and South Tunbridge Wells.

The pattern extends further back. During the previous winter, there were supply interruptions in Tunbridge Wells and across Kent and Sussex. The company said that more than 77,000 customers experienced

“periods without water supply, low pressure or intermittent supplies”

as a result of leaks and bursts across the network, as well as storms causing power cuts. This history of repeated disruption has raised questions about the resilience of South East Water’s infrastructure and its ability to maintain consistent service across its region.

How Many Customers Does South East Water Serve?

South East Water is a major regional utility provider, supplying around 2.3 million customers across the South East of England. Given this scale, any disruption to its network has the potential to affect a large number of households and businesses simultaneously, as has been demonstrated by both the current Kent outage and previous incidents in Tunbridge Wells, Kent and Sussex.

The size of the company’s customer base also means that repeated service failures, such as those experienced over the past year, can have a cumulative effect on public confidence in the reliability of the network, particularly in areas that have been repeatedly affected by outages and low-pressure incidents.
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What Penalties Is South East Water Facing From Ofwat?

The latest outage comes at a difficult time for South East Water, which is already facing significant regulatory scrutiny. The industry watchdog, Ofwat, announced earlier this week that the company is facing a £30.5 million redress package over multiple customer service failures.

Ofwat said last Tuesday that the company, which has suffered a series of supply interruptions, would have to foot the bill for its shortcomings along with shareholders, rather than place the burden on long-suffering household bills. This decision reflects growing regulatory pressure on water companies across England to take financial responsibility for repeated service failures, rather than passing the cost of remediation on to customers through higher bills.

The timing of the announcement, arriving in the same week as the latest major outage in Kent, is likely to intensify scrutiny of South East Water’s operational performance and its ability to prevent similar incidents from recurring in future.

What Happens Next for Affected Households?

For now, residents in Sandhurst, Pembury and South Tunbridge Wells face an anxious wait to see their water supply return to normal. South East Water has urged patience while it works to stabilise storage tank levels, and bottled water stations remain available for those in urgent need, including the site at the Tesco superstore on Pembury Road and a further station due to open shortly.

Mike Martin has indicated he will continue to provide updates to constituents as the situation develops, while South East Water has committed to keeping affected customers informed as engineers work to restore full service across the network. With supply not expected to fully return until at least Sunday morning in the worst-affected areas, households have been advised to make use of the bottled water provisions in the meantime.