South East Water - situation Wednesday 24 June 2026

The Met Office has issued a RED weather warning for heat today and Thursday for most of our region.  The areas not covered by red are at AMBER.

Temperatures are expected to reach 33 degrees in Kent, 34 degrees in Sussex and 34 degrees in Hampshire.  These temperatures are forecast to ease down to high-mid 20's going into the weekend, before dropping down to low 20s next week.

Demand:

We are seeing much higher than average demand for tap water, as anticipated.

Below is the forecast of demand we will need to meet:

24/06/2026 = 667.83 Ml/d (Megalitres per day)

25/06/2026 = 674.53 Ml/d

26/06/2026 = 651.33 Ml/d

27/06/2026 = 636.63 Ml/d

28/06/2026 = 614.23 Ml/d

29/06/2026 = 607.03 Ml/d

30/06/2026 = 604.53 Ml/d 

For context, our average demand in June is 588 Ml/d.  During the recent heatwave we saw demand increase to 670 Ml/d, peaking on the bank holiday Monday (25/05/2026).

Customer impact:

There is currently no widespread customer impact as a result of high demand due to the hot weather.

Overall we remain in a stable position.

We have had a burst water main which has affected customers in the Biddenden, Headcorn and surrounding areas of Kent.

Our teams have completed repairs on a burst main on High Street, Biddenden.  While supplies are now returning to customers in Headcorn, those on higher ground may still experience issues.  Our repair teams are continuing work on a remaining burst on Biddenden Road which will affect customers in Smarden.

A bottled water station is open at:

Sainsbury's, 34 High St, Headcorn, Ashford TN27 9NE. 

Schools in the area received proactive deliveries of bottled water to enable them to open.

An overland pipe is being put in place while the repair is carried out and tanker injections are taking place into the network.

Customers who cannot be supplied by the overland pipe or tankering - 36 properties - will be supported with bottled water deliveries.  In addition, customers in nearby Ulcombe village, where the tankering is taking place, will also have bottled water deliveries.

Preparations:

Hot weather incident calls take place daily.

We have Bronze level regional teams escalating issues of concern to the central Silver team.

Silver incident calls coordinate regional activities and ensure support is given where required.

Executive-level Gold calls look at the operational situation and ensure the high-level support is in place as needed.

Planned work on the network has been paused and outages minimised.

Tankers

We have 12 tankers proactively supporting our Blean Service Reservoir (and associated downstream network) in the East Kent area.

We have also called upon additional tankers from our supply chain to actively support in at risk areas.

We have ensured availability of additional contractor support out of hours, should it be required.

Alternative Water:

We have sufficient stocks of bottled water at depots across the region and plans are in place for deployment if required.

We have launched an in-house app to support our bottled water station teams on the ground, providing real-time information.

At Gold incident level we have a Health, Safety and Wellbeing lead designated to the bottled water station teams.

Vulnerable Customers:

Lists by area are fully prepared and teams are on standby. 

Currently no proactive bottled water deliveries are required for heat related demand issues.