Power cut causes water supply outages
A Kent MP has called disruption to thousands of properties due to a water outage "unacceptable".
Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge, was speaking after a power cut shut down a water treatment works that supplies 5,000 properties in Sevenoaks, Hildenborough, Bidborough and Tonbridge for three days.
South East Water said on Tuesday the facility in Sevenoaks was operational but "some localised areas" would have low pressure due to air pockets in the system.
Tugendhat said: "It simply is unacceptable that schools are closed, businesses were interrupted and home lives are disturbed by something that we should all be able to take for granted - which is clean drinking water."
The MP said he had met South East water days ago and he intends to "keep the pressure on".
He also criticised South East Water for telling Tonbridge residents to collect water from Speldhurst which is five miles (8km) away.
"I'm very concerned that the water company has not been able to make sure that homes that might have been interrupted had bottled water immediately. That's a bit of an issue," he said.
Weald of Kent Grammar School informed parents its Tonbridge campus was closed due to the site having "no water".
Resident Paul Salter said he noticed his home had no water on Tuesday morning [Piers Hopkirk/BBC]
Paul Salter, a resident who was picking up water from Speldhurst on Tuesday morning, said: "We had no water saved in pots and pans because we had no notice but we've been managing OK.
"It's good to hear there's a supply now where we can pick up some bottles to keep us going."
He added: "We can't flush the toilets. We can't even put the kettle on to make a drink."
Lauren Haywaid added: "There's a lot of people who can't get to the water that are probably still without."
South East Water operations director Douglas Whitfield told BBC South East that storms over the weekend had caused a mechanical fault that meant the treatment works' backup generator failed.
"We are really sorry to all the residents of Sevenoaks and Tonbridge. Of course this is not what we want. We really understand this has been a difficult two days for them – particularly areas that have been impacted before when we have had extreme weather," he said.
"We are putting in place plans to make sure this doesn't happen in the future and that's what we need to continue working on now to make sure this doesn't happen again."
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