{"id":609481,"date":"2026-05-29T01:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609481\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:29:14","slug":"theyre-a-private-company-run-for-profit-fury-in-kent-at-south-east-waters-outages-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609481\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They\u2019re a private company, run for profit!\u2019: fury in Kent at South East Water\u2019s outages | Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSpitting, fuming, angry and powerless\u201d is how Pat Prestage describes her emotions after a water outage<\/a> that has affected thousands of homes in Kent during the heatwave.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, 8,000 South East Water<\/a> customers in Whitstable lost water, with 14,000 more in Tankerton, Ashford, and its surrounding areas facing an intermittent supply or low pressure. South East Water\u2019s incident manager, Matthew Dean, said on Thursday that 22,000 people had had water supply problems.<\/p>\n

The company blamed increased demand<\/a> in the hot weather and asked people to use water only for essential purposes.<\/p>\n

Martin and Pat Prestage, from Whitstable in Kent, say they feel \u2018powerless\u2019 about South East Water\u2019s response to the water shortages. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Prestage, 67, lives with a disability that makes her more vulnerable to events like this. At 6.30pm on Wednesday, Prestage\u2019s water supply in Whitstable went off. Her husband, Martin, tried to ring for an emergency delivery but could not get through to South East Water\u2019s emergency line. On Thursday morning, he spent more than an hour queueing for water at a bottle station.<\/p>\n

The Prestages are angry at the company\u2019s response, particularly its co-option of what the couple describe as the \u201cblitz spirit\u201d in asking customers<\/a> with water to ease up on their usage to help those without.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk to the public as if they\u2019re a public service. They\u2019re a private company, run for profit!\u201d says Pat. \u201cSome of the money we\u2019re paying, they\u2019re pocketing, and it\u2019s not going into the reservoir we\u2019ve needed for 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin says \u201cthe inference is almost that it\u2019s our fault\u201d.<\/p>\n

People wait for \u2018courtesy water\u2019 in Whitstable in Kent. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say the extreme hot weather means the system can\u2019t cope, but what sort of system is it that goes offline like it has for us for 20 hours?\u201d says Martin. \u201cSurely you build things into the system so you don\u2019t get that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

MPs accused South East Water\u2019s senior executives<\/a> of incompetence earlier this month over repeated water outages for tens of thousands of customers, leading to the resignation of the water company\u2019s chair and chief executive.<\/p>\n

At a water collection point between Whitstable and Herne Bay, hundreds of cars lined up in 27C heat.<\/p>\n

In one parking spot, 90-year-old Kayce Snellgrove sat in the front seat while her daughter, Debbie Finch, loaded bottles into the back. Despite being on a priority list, Snellgrove said she had not received any water delivery as she had during last year\u2019s outage, and had not had access to water since Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely disgusting, it is,\u201d says Snellgrove. \u201cI live alone, I\u2019m 90 years old, and I\u2019m cut off again. It is absolutely ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caroline Wade, a single parent in Whitstable who runs a PR business, did not have time to queue for water. On Thursday morning she sent her daughter on a play date to a house where there was water and went to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this the new standard of living in modern day Britain?\u201d asks Wade. \u201cMyself and my daughter have no water for bathing, washing utensils, for drinking or flushing the toilet during one of the hottest Mays<\/a> on record.\u201d<\/p>\n

A restaurant in Whitstable, Kent, forced to close owing to water supply problems. Photograph: Gareth Fuller\/PA<\/p>\n

Water outages are becoming a part of life in Kent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ayhan Betez, a 56-year-old semi-retired police officer, said water loss was \u201cgoing to be part of daily living. People have to start getting bottles of water in, thinking of plans, getting portable showers, buckets, and accept this will happen every year\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government aims to cut water use in England<\/a> by 20% per person per day by 2038, and to reduce average consumption to 110 litres per person per day by 2050. The current average water use in Britain per person per day is 142-150 litres, one of the highest per-capita daily water usage rates in Europe.<\/p>\n

South East Water said there would be intermittent water supplies until it could get treated water into its storage reservoirs. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

A recent report<\/a> said that, alongside other measures, an urgent campaign aimed at reducing water use was needed to avoid shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055 in England.<\/p>\n

In a statement, South East Water said it was doing everything it could to get treated water into its storage reservoirs, but \u201csome customers will continue to have intermittent water supply until these levels have been restored\u201d. It apologised to customers, especially in the light of the hot weather, and saidit would continue to do all it could to prevent and resolve the issues.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Sandra Laville<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSpitting, fuming, angry and powerless\u201d is how Pat Prestage describes her emotions after a water outage that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-609481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}