Homes across Kent, Sussex and Leicestershire without water during heatwave

Water supply issues are currently affecting about 700 customers of South East Water and Anglian Water across Kent, Sussex and Leicestershire, leaving them without water on the hottest day of the year.

People in three villages in Kent - Charing, Challock and Molash - have been experiencing low pressure or no water intermittently for three days, South East Water's incident manager Steve Benton said. Roughly 250 properties are currently affected.

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"We have been using tankers to inject water into the network and moving water around from other areas. Customers in Charing, Challock and Molash should start to see their supplies returning at a low pressure," Mr Benton said.

"We're doing everything we can to keep these going, however they may experience intermittent supplies while we stabilise the network.

"This follows a technical failure at our pumping station near Charing, which means we have struggled to push water to properties on higher ground."

A bottled water station is operating at Challock Village Hall.

A technical issue affecting booster pumps at Radfall near Broomfield Gate, Whitstable, has caused water supply issues for 64 properties overnight, with a technician working to resolve this.

In the Ulcombe area, fewer than 20 properties on higher ground are also affected by ongoing water supply problems.

South East Water said it was delivering bottled water to affected customers.

More demand for water than usual

"As a result of the recent hot weather, we're seeing increased demand across our network and we're having to pump far more drinking water than usual," Mr Benton said.

"We're working hard to maintain supplies to customers across our network as the hot weather and increased demand for drinking water continues.

"Some customers on higher ground may, however, experience low water pressure or intermittent supply at peak times."

South East Water is also working to repair a burst water main in the Decoy Drive area of Eastbourne in Sussex, which is affecting the water supply for 168 properties.

The company said it had been "concerned" about water supplies in the Faversham area, but storage levels in the area have recovered.

"We're sorry to all impacted customers for the disruption caused. We know water supply issues during hot weather are deeply frustrating and incredibly inconvenient, and we are working as quickly and safely as possible to resolve them," South East Water said.

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'System has to play catch-up'

Some Anglican Water customers in Leicestershire are also experiencing issues with their water supply.

The company said one of its pumps that pushes water around the network near the Market Harborough area wasn't working at full capacity on Sunday.

It added that while this issue was fixed, the pump experienced a further issue on Monday morning, which has since been resolved.

Around 200 properties were impacted by this, experiencing either low water pressure or no water.

"The pump issues coupled with the impact of the hot weather, means the system is having to play catch up," Anglican Water said in a statement.

"A small number of customers will have experienced issues with their water supply over this period and may still be experiencing low pressure or no water.

"Those customers impacted would have experienced their water supply fluctuating sporadically, rather than having no water at all, this is caused by pressure in the system going up and down.

"We currently have restoration tankers deployed to the area to pump additional water into the system and boost the water supply and restore water pressure back to normal as soon as possible."

(c) Sky News 2026: Homes across Kent, Sussex and Leicestershire without water during heatwave