Whitstable residents say water shortage harming businesses
Many businesses in the area have been forced to close their doors, as it remains uncertain when water issues will be fixed.
Residents of Whitstable, Kent, are voicing their frustration following prolonged water shortages that have severely impacted daily living and the local economy.
Earlier this week, residents across Kent were told to use water scarcely, due to supply issues in the area.
The incident has led to widespread closure of Whitstable's High Street cafes and businesses during a peak tourism week. Alongside concerns for vulnerable communities.
Speaking to us, resident Julie Friel said her water had been off since 8 am:
"The last text message I got from South East Water, they just keep talking about the high temperatures, may experience intermittent supplies. I would like them to clarify intermittent.
"Does that mean two days on, two days off, a week on, a week off? Like, are we getting it tonight? You know, bottled water is available for collection."
"My partner Jamie, he was out this morning at about 7.30 this morning. It opened to 8 to try and beat the queue. He waited for an hour already. Traffic was backed up. "
She added that the shortages were harming local business:
"All the restaurants, cafes, bars have had to close since 8 o'clock last night.
"This is arguably one of the busiest weeks for them. Half term, gorgeous sunshine, sun and you know, seaside town.
"Hospitality has been hit hard enough recently. They don't need compounding issues like this.
"Someone in power has got to help us and do something about this. This is Britain 2026. What? Who, you know, it's mental. A little, you know, blip here and there, fair enough, but this happens too often in this town, in this area."
At the time of writing, South East Water's Incident Manager, Matthew Dean, said: “Customers across Kent are still experiencing water supply issues due to extremely high demand during the very hot weather.
“On Wednesday 27 May, we pumped 628 million litres of water to customers across our region. This is higher than the average for this time of year, and over the weekend we were treating and pumping more than 100 million litres more than the daily average for May.
“We are doing everything we can to get treated water into our storage reservoirs, including using our tankers to support the network and ensuring all available treatment works are running at full capacity. However, some customers will continue to have intermittent water supply until these levels have been restored. This means water may be on and off throughout the day.
“Currently there are 8,000 customers without supply in the Whitstable area because the storage reservoirs which serve the area have reached a critical level. Parts of Whitstable will see supplies returning later today, and this will continue through to tomorrow morning. Tap water is likely to remain intermittent across the weekend.
“There are currently 14,000 customers experiencing low pressure or an intermittent supply in Tankerton, Ashford and its surrounding areas, Ulcombe, Cranbrook, Coxheath, Headcorn, Herne Bay, Charing, Challock and Molash.
“We are continuing to ask customers in supply to use water for essential purposes only - for example drinking, washing and cooking.
“We have bottled water collection stations already set up and are reviewing these locations continuously.
“Our call centre is experiencing high call volumes. Customers can find FAQs, details of bottled water stations and information about locations currently experiencing supply issues via our website.
“Our customer care team will continue to support our most vulnerable customers with deliveries of bottled water.
“We are sorry to customers who have had interruptions or low pressure in their water supply and know how frustrating it is, especially in very hot weather.
“We will continue to do all we can to prevent and resolve the issues."