With Immediate Effect, South East Water Introduces Hosepipe Restrictions Across The Supply Area In Kent

Due to high temperatures and record demand for water across Kent, a Temporary Use Ban (hosepipe ban) is now in place for customers in South East Water Kent supply area.

Why are we doing this?

Following a sustained period of hot, dry weather, demand for water across Kent has reached exceptionally high levels. While we’ve worked to sustain supplies, the continued pressure on our network means we now need to reduce non-essential water use.

Introducing a Temporary Use Ban will help protect local water resources and ensure we can continue to provide a reliable supply of drinking water to customers and essential services across the county.

We’re asking everyone across the county to please follow these restrictions straight away, to help us protect local water supplies. These restrictions will be enforced from 00:01 on Friday, 3 July.

What do these restrictions mean?

The restrictions mean that you should not use hosepipes for watering gardens, washing cars, patios and boats and for filling swimming and paddling pools.

We completely understand why everyone reaches for the hose when the weather gets this hot. It’s natural to want to enjoy our gardens and cool down, and we know how frustrating it is to hear that restrictions are coming into place.

Our teams have worked incredibly hard to prepare for this summer, but the sheer scale of this sustained heatwave means water is being drawn from our storage tanks faster than it can physically be treated and refilled. Our absolute priority has to be making sure there is always enough water for everyone’s essential daily needs—like hygiene, drinking and cooking—and that we protect our vulnerable customers.

What are we doing during this time?

Despite producing up to more than an additional 100 million litres of water a day – equivalent to supplying in the region of three towns the size of Maidstone – the demand for drinking water needs to be reduced to ensure that supply interruptions are not experienced across its network throughout the summer.

To manage this peak period, our operations team are working flat out with:

• Production at max capacity: Every single available water treatment works and source is running at full capacity, has produced an extra 100 million litres of water a day (enough to supply three towns the size of Maidstone).
• Leakage control: We have significantly increased the number of teams on the ground locating and fixing bursts and leaks to save every drop.
• Network optimisation: Operations teams are actively re-routing water across the network to support areas seeing the steepest drops in storage levels.
• County-wide scope: While recent infrastructure upgrades have improved resilience in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge from a repeat of winter’s interruptions, this heatwave is draining storage tanks right across Kent, requiring this county-wide approach.