Thousands of households in Whitstable are facing severe water supply issues amid a heatwave, after South East Water announced that local storage reservoirs had reached a "critical level". Around 8,000 customers in the Kent town were initially affected, with images showing long queues for bottled water at a local Sainsbury’s.
The utility company has urged customers to use water for essential purposes only – for drinking, washing and cooking – following persistent supply problems since the hot bank holiday weekend. The disruption has prompted Kent County Council to announce increased public scrutiny of water supply, quality, and infrastructure across the county, citing residents who are "fed up" with recent outages.
