THOUSANDS have been left without water in a UK town with locals forced to queue for bottles for hours.
South East Water has apologised to more than 24,000 customers in Tunbridge Wells, Kent for the shortages.
Residents have been left with either no running water or low pressure after the water company’s Pembury site “stopped working”.
The water treatment site has been forced to shut down due to a “bad batch” of chemicals which has left water storage tanks to run low.
South East Water have subsequently set up bottled water stations at Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre which was forced to close earlier on Sunday to replenish stocks.
Water bottle stations were also set up at Odeon Cinema Knights Way and RCP Parking while the site at Sovereign Way was also shut because of a winter festival.
They added the sites would be open until 10.30pm on Sunday evening.
It’s estimated the issues should be resolved by 6am on Monday morning after two days of disruption.
South East Water incident manager, Marc Sims, told the BBC: “The number has reduced from around 24,000 earlier today, with about 1,150 properties in the Pembury area back in supply following rezones.”
The firm said they were “continuing to move water around and tanker into the network to restore as many supplies as possible” while they carry out the “necessary water quality testing”.
Sims added that water bottles were being delivered to vulnerable customers and care homes in the area while the firm remains in “direct contact” to support Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
Residents have been left fuming by the disruption and have reported waiting for hours to collect water amid chaos at the bottled water centres.
Users took to social media with some blasting South East Water as an “absolute joke”.
One posted earlier today: “Just heard from a friend that a bottle station at Sovereign Way has been open for more than an hour but has queues an hour long.”
Local businesses have also been forced to close over the weekend because of the ongoing outage.
Indian restaurant, Spice Fusion, told customers on Facebook on Sunday how they would remain closed because of the issues, saying it’s made it “impossible for us to operate safely and maintain hygiene standards”.
And Black Horse pub said they had been without water since midnight on Saturday.
Nicola Hodgson told the BBC how her husband had visited a water station in Tonbridge but to no avail.
She said: “We have two young children, aged five and seven, so they have decamped to their grandmothers’ for the moment, so we can get them something to drink and have working toilets.”
Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, Mike Martin, posted on X that he was aware of the water outage in the area and was without water himself, adding he had spoken to the CEO of South East Water.
He said: “For those who are not aware, the problem has been caused by a bad batch of coagulant chemicals.
“A new set of chemicals have been procured and the team have been working through the night to clean out Pembury Treatment Works.”
He later posted that it was “utterly disgraceful” that 24,000 people had been affected.
