The utility provider cautioned Kent<\/a> households that drinking storage tank supplies are still “critically low”, calling on people to restrict their consumption to “essential” needs following the disruption.<\/p>\n Although service was returned to 7,400 addresses across Herne Bay, Rough Common and Blean by Tuesday morning, a further 400 properties continued to experience reduced pressure or complete loss of supply.<\/p>\n Demonstrating their frustration on Monday evening, roughly 60 to 70 villagers in Benenden, Kent, arranged plastic water bottles on the local green to spell out the words “Help us”.<\/p>\n Government officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra<\/a>) stated that further widespread disruption for customers was “simply not good enough”.<\/p>\n A Defra spokesperson said: \u201cSouth East Water<\/a> needs to go further and faster to reduce leaks and follow their drought<\/a> plans to ensure supplies are not disrupted in even the driest of weather.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir new leadership must now deliver a step change in performance, where customers\u2019 needs are prioritised and there is a stop to supply outages.\u201d<\/p>\n It is the latest in a string of incidents SEW customers have faced, and Weald of Kent MP Katie Lam, whose constituency includes the areas still impacted by the supply issues, said outages have become \u201cdepressingly common\u201d.<\/p>\n In July, 7,000 homes in the Tunbridge Wells area had supply issues because of a failure at a treatment works.<\/p>\n In Benenden in Kent on Tuesday morning, bottled water could be seen left outside houses while a South East Water van was also spotted driving through the village.<\/p>\n At The Bull At Benenden pub, one resident, Nicola Stanway, had come in after not receiving a delivery, and has been out of water since Thursday.<\/p>\n The 51-year-old said: \u201cThis morning I haven\u2019t received any deliveries of water so been reliant on coming here and using Lucy\u2019s (pub landlord) water.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we have seen lots of houses around here that are empty with bottled water, it\u2019s ridiculously distributed, it\u2019s not been well planned or orchestrated at all.<\/p>\n Of how South East Water has been dealing with the outage, the estate agent said: \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing, it\u2019s frustrating, the amount of excuses, every couple of days it\u2019s something different.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents organised to meet out on the green on Monday evening to stage a protest, collecting all the plastic water bottles they have been using, as Ms Stanway said everyone in the village wants to be heard and have a voice.<\/p>\n Pub owner Lucy Barron-Reid said the protest of around 60 to 70 people was to prove a point how much people use plastic bottled water for basic washes, going to the toilet, cooking, cleaning and looking after animals.<\/p>\n For her business, she said: \u201cApart from Covid this is the hardest thing we have had to deal with.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last few years we have had sporadic water outages and this year has become really severe, which has been extremely difficult to run a business.\u201d<\/p>\n She said they made the decision to remain open since losing water last Thursday to avoid joining the statistics of pubs that close down.<\/p>\n The pub landlady of 22 years said the handling from South East Water is \u201cabsolutely shocking\u201d and as a business in the outages they have to buy their own water from a different company.<\/p>\n \u201cBut our community has stepped in,\u201d the 56-year-old said, adding it is getting to the point they have not got water either.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s a bit stuffed. It\u2019s just really exhausting mentally and physically,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really is very scary, a couple of times on Saturday I got very upset and very tearful, I don\u2019t want to do this anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n South East Water\u2019s incident manager, Mike Court, said on Tuesday that drinking water supplies have been restored to 7,400 properties in the Herne Bay, Rough Common and Blean areas of Kent, which were experiencing \u201cno water or intermittent supplies\u201d yesterday.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cHowever, properties in Herne Bay may experience intermittent supplies later today due to high demand for drinking water in the area as the storage tank which supplies the area remains at a critical level.<\/p>\n \u201cApproximately 400 properties in the Benenden, Cranbrook and Rolvenden areas of Kent are continuing to experience low pressure or no water this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Lam criticised the \u201cdepressingly common\u201d outages as \u201csimply not good enough\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Villagers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/01M0AFVYFHDACYG5Z1VX5SXB1E.jpeg\")
Villagers in Benenden, Kent, staged a protest with plastic bottles of water spelled out on the green on Monday evening reading ‘Help us’ (Nicola Stanway \/PA Wire)<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/01M0AFW05NPGMNDRAT1WMYMBN8.jpg\")
At The Bull At Benenden pub, one resident Nicola Stanway had come in after not receiving a delivery, and has been out of water since Thursday (PA)<\/p>\n![\"Pub](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/01M0AFVYY0QJ8YKZVCVWTBTG9V.jpg\")
Pub owner Lucy Barron-Reid said the protest of around 60 to 70 people was to prove a point how much people use plastic bottled water for basic washes, going to the toilet, cooking, cleaning and looking after animals (PA)<\/p>\n![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/786c24d3957f1d2469d28fbfae848cfcY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzg3MTQxNTM1-2.85600547.jpg\")
South East Water has warned its customers in Kent that water levels in its drinking storage tanks remain \u2018critically low\u2019 as the firm urged them to only use water for \u2018essential\u2019 purposes following the incident<\/p>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/b774879a51e4601f19b3e6312c323098Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzg3MTMzMzk0-2.85554416.jpg\")
South East Water was the first company to introduce a hosepipe ban this summer when it implemented one for customers in parts of Kent<\/p>\n