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South East Water’s chief executive has apologised to customers affected by water shortages as the company prepares to enforce a hosepipe ban from Monday (26 June).
The company was forced to ask people to restrict their usage to essential purposes as demand surged in the hot weather. Regions were left with low pressure or no water as the company pumped 20% more than average water into its network to meet consumption.
David Hinton has written to customers in Kent and Sussex to apologise for the shortages and offer reassurance to customers that resilience measures are being taken.
He said the upcoming temporary use ban (TUB) was needed to protect supplies after “record levels of demand” over consecutive days.
“We are sincerely sorry to those affected,” Hinton said and told affected customers they would be compensated.
His letter set out the three factors that built up to the supply interruptions: changing consumption habits, low rainfall and hot weather.
Hinton said a shift to homeworking had changed demand patterns over the past three years, with greater demand in commuter towns, which existing infrastructure was tested by.
He added the weather in the past two months meant people had used up stored supplies. Although reservoir levels remain adequate, the company was not able to treat and supply water as quickly as customers were using it, Hinton explained.
In June, the region only received 59% of the long-term average rainfall. However, total rain over the past year was 821mm or 112% of the long-term average according to the Environment Agency.
Hinton explained that to keep taps running, the company was increasing supply with a planned reservoir at Canterbury, which he said work would commence on “shortly” subject to Ofwat approval.
Elsewhere, South East will increase connections at harder-to reach locations in its region to improve supply service during extreme weather. More storage tanks are also being added to the network to bolster localised supplies.
The company is spending £40 million annually to find and fix leaks. The challenge is getting steeper when weather events cause pipes to move and burst in the ground. In December the company reported 300% increase in bursts during the freeze-thaw.
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