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South East Water staff hand out bottled water at a water station in Maidstone, after bad weather was blamed for more water outages in Kent and parts of Sussex, January 13, 2026
AROUND 17,000 properties across Kent and Sussex remained without drinking water for a fifth day today, South East Water confirmed.
The company blamed Storm Goretti for burst pipes and power cuts, following a similar supply failure in December.
Water has been restored to around 8,000 customers, but thousands were still without supplies.
Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran said “heads must roll,” while Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin has called for SEW chief executive David Hinton to resign.
Most schools remain open, though some could close early if they run out of water, Kent County Council said.
South East Water incident manager Matthew Dean apologised to customers, saying the company understood “how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is.”
Most of those still affected are in East Grinstead, where around 11,500 properties remain without water.
The disruption comes after 24,000 properties in and around Tunbridge Wells were left without drinkable water for almost two weeks last month.
Mr Hinton was questioned by MPs last week, with parliamentary committee chairman Alistair Carmichael saying MPs remained “deeply sceptical” of the company’s account and may recall Mr Hinton.
