Kent Water Outages: 30,000 Homes Without Water

On 12 January 2026 the Kent County Council declared a major incident after South East Water reported that 30,000 properties in Kent and Sussex were without running water. The outage affected 16,500 homes in East Grinstead, parts of Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, Canterbury and Whitstable, with supplies not expected to return until Tuesday. The cause was traced to Storm Goretti and freezing temperatures that burst water mains. South East Water deployed 21 tankers and delivered 5,700 bottles of water over the weekend. Earlier, 24,000 residents in Tunbridge Wells endured days of no water after a water‑quality issue in December 2025. The company’s chief executive faced criticism from MPs for the lack of accountability.