THOUSANDS of people in Kent are continuing to face water supply issues, including some with a “complete lack of water,” South East Water (Sew) has said.

Around 7,000 properties in the Tunbridge Wells area faced low pressure, intermittent supply or no water after an “instrument failure” at a nearby treatment works. 

The company said it was “on target” for supplies to return on Sunday evening “at the earliest.”

Incident manager Steve Benton said: “We are genuinely sorry to all customers currently experiencing low pressure, intermittent supply, or a complete lack of water today. 

“This is not the service we aim to provide, and is not the service our customers deserve.”

Bottled water stations were set up in Tunbridge Wells, with tankers used to boost storage levels.

Earlier this week, the company was ordered to pay £30.5 million following Ofwat investigations into previous supply interruptions affecting hundreds of thousands of households across Kent and Sussex, including a £22m fine for failures between 2020 and 2023 that impacted more than 286,000 people.

Sew has warned it needs fresh financing to stay afloat after a £55m hit from winter outages, saying it has enough cash to continue until July 2027.