Yvonne Singh says the government needs to hold South East Water to account after elderly and vulnerable residents had to queue at water stations in the hottest week of the year.
A Recurring Crisis
The story is a depressingly familiar one: from bank holiday Monday, thousands of homes in Kent had no water all last week. This on the hottest week of the year so far. No water for drinking, flushing toilets, washing hands, bathing or cleaning, let alone sprinklers in the garden.
Impact on Vulnerable Residents
Vulnerable and elderly people and families were forced to queue in the searing heat for bottled water at water stations. Those on priority lists did not receive promised deliveries and had to rely on the kindness of friends and families. In Whitstable, the first hot week of the summer promised profit. Instead, cafes, pubs, famed oyster bars and leisure centres were forced to close, resulting in thousands of pounds being lost from the local economy.
Previous Failures
In January, a similar outage happened for several weeks in Tunbridge Wells because of an issue at Pembury treatment works. South East Water’s response then was wanting, as for several weeks people’s lives were disrupted as a basic commodity to function – running water – was not available.
Blame-Shifting Continues
Now there is similar blame-shifting: we should all conserve water, it’s a hot week, there’s been a demand spike, the pump at Charing is defective, expect more water outages as the summer goes on.
High Bills, Poor Service
Customers in Kent pay some of the highest water bills in the country, but the service we receive is defective. South East Water is turning millions in profit. It has consistently failed to repair crumbling infrastructure and instead diverted funds into executives’ pay packets. The government needs to hold this profiteering company to account. In Kent, the temperature is rising.
Yvonne Singh, Faversham, Kent
