Left With Dry Taps
42,000 residents across Kent and Sussex left without running water as South East Water faces fresh scrutiny.
More than 42,000 residents across Kent and Sussex are without running water again today as South East Water (SEW) struggles to contain a network-wide crisis triggered by Storm Goretti, burst mains and depleted treated water storage reservoirs. With eight active outages across the region and bottled‑water stations stretched to capacity, residents are once again left wondering why one of the UK’s most water-stressed regions remains so vulnerable.
Mims Davies, the MP for Mid Sussex, said she had met with the DEFRA Minister, MPs across Kent and Sussex, Councils and resilience forums, adding that “around 42000 people are currently affected.”
The largest single outage is in East Grinstead, where 16,500 homes have no water or critically low pressure — a disruption SEW admits will not be resolved before the end of the weekend. In Kent, thousands more across Hollingbourne, Headcorn, Loose and the Maidstone area are experiencing dry taps or intermittent supply.
For many, this is not a one-off emergency. It is the latest in a pattern of failures that has left communities feeling abandoned.
“We are sorry…” but residents say apologies are wearing thin.
A South East Water spokesperson said in an AquAlerter update for East Grinstead, published at 8:37 am on 11th January 2026: “Storm Goretti has affected our ability to treat water at the normal rate. Coupled with the outbreak of burst water mains due to freeze–thaw conditions, our drinking water storage levels are running low.”
In a further AquAlerter notice covering Headcorn and Hollingbourne, the company warned: “Neighbouring water companies are unable to give us the bulk supplies of treated water as they normally do. This means our treated water storage reservoirs are running low.” Headcorn/Hollingbourne, 11th January 2026, 08:30 am
South East Water has been approached for comment but has not responded at the time of publication.
Active Interruptions (South East Water)
South East Water reports eight active interruptions across its network today.
Only six appear on the public Works & Interruptions page:
BN22 9JW – Eastbourne (burst main)
ME17 3DH – Hollingbourne/Headcorn (third‑party repair)
East Grinstead (multiple postcodes)
Ashurst Wood
Uckfield area
Lower Dicker / wider East Sussex zone
SEW has not provided details of the remaining two interruptions.
Bottled water again — but at what cost?
SEW has opened bottled‑water stations in Headcorn and East Grinstead. They are also delivering water to households on the Priority Services Register.
One resident told SEW via Facebook that bottled-water stations in East Grinstead were “a textbook example of how NOT to run emergency distribution,” describing long queues, blocked roads and “the town effectively paralysed” by poor traffic management.
Another told me they’d had to dramatically change their weekend plans with friends because most restaurants and takeaways were closed, and much of the roads around the bottled-water stations were jammed solid. An East Grinstead resident described the scene at the East Grinstead Sports Club Collection Station, where there were no supplies. He said, “You couldn’t make it up, the lorries have got stuck!”
Photographer Christopher Barnes, who shared images of the disruption, said the town was “snarled up”, with replacement buses adding to the congestion. Passengers were being dropped near the fire station and forced to walk the rest of the way to the railway station.
Whilst the East Grinstead area is experiencing the largest single outage, residents across Hollingbourne, Headcorn and Loose report similar frustrations.
But bottled‑water distribution is not a sustainable solution. It’s an expensive, resource-heavy process that relies on tankers, long road journeys and thousands of single-use plastic bottles.
These figures are absent from SEW’s Annual Performance Reports, leaving residents in the dark about how much emergency response is costing and whether long-term investment is being sacrificed for short-term firefighting.
Sewage discharges add a second environmental crisis
Storm Goretti has also triggered raw sewage discharges across Kent and Sussex, as wastewater systems were overwhelmed by rainfall. Environment Agency pollution alerts show storm overflows releasing untreated sewage into:
The River Medway
The River Stour
The River Ouse
Multiple coastal waters in Kent and Sussex
This means that several rivers and coastal areas are currently unsafe for swimming, compounding the environmental fallout.
A system under strain and a company under pressure
SEW has been under political scrutiny for months. In December, MPs challenged CEO David Hinton over repeated failures in Tunbridge Wells, where 6,500 homes lost water. Hinton told MPs the outage was “unforeseeable” — only for another outage to occur the next day.
Today’s widespread disruption raises urgent questions:
Why do treated water storage reservoirs repeatedly run low?
Why is the network so vulnerable to weather events?
Why does SEW rely so heavily on emergency bottled‑water stations?
What investment has been made — or not made — in resilience?
How much is being spent on emergency response instead of prevention?
These questions remain unanswered — but they will not go away.
Residents deserve transparency — and stability.
With eight active interruptions across the SEW region today and tens of thousands relying on bottled water, the company faces renewed scrutiny over its ability to provide a basic essential service.
For now, residents are left with dry taps, long queues, and growing frustration — and the promise of further updates “as soon as possible.”
Sunday, 11th January 20:52 pm
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