Water supply in Kent

A debate has been scheduled in Westminster Hall on 10 June 2026 to consider water supply in Kent. The debate will be opened by Sojan Joseph MP.

Kent is host to numerous rivers and a long coastline, stretching from Dartford to Dungeness. Defra’s river catchment explorer shows several water bodies in Kent have been classified as having ‘moderate’ or ‘poor’ ecological status. In 2025, of the designated bathing waters across Kent, 15 achieved a classification of ‘excellent’, nine were ‘good’, three ‘sufficient’, and one ‘poor’.

Different parts of Kent are served by different water companies. The Library’s interactive tool allows users to look up the composition of households served by each company in an individual constituency. The major water companies serving Kent are South East Water, Southern, Affinity and Thames Water. These monopoly water companies supply water to households within their own regional supply areas, drawing on resources from five major reservoirs: Bewl, Darwell, Bough Breech, Powdermill and Weir Wood.

In its April 2026 report, the Environment Agency assessed the water situation in Kent and South London as being characterised by exceptionally low rainfall. It said that the area received an average rainfall total of four millimetres in April, equivalent to just 10% of the long-term average, and noted decreases in soil moisture, average river flows and groundwater levels. It also noted that levels across the major reservoirs decreased during April, with Darwell and Powedermill classified as ‘notably low’.

There have been several substantial disruptions to water supply across Kent, with many impacting customers whose water is supplied by South East Water. In Ofwat’s 2024-25 water company performance report, South East Water was found to have been in the “bottom three companies in each year of the 2020-25 period”.

After the 2018 ‘Beast from the East’ weather event, where several companies suffered major water supply interruptions, customers of South East Water have experienced a disproportionately high number of supply interruptions, almost exclusively in the eastern region of the company. In 2023, economic regulator Ofwat launched an investigation into South East Water’s supply interruptions and operational response, and found that these impacted 286,000 customers between 2020 and 2023. Ofwat has proposed fining South East Water £22 million, and has opened a separate investigation into additional supply failures in 2025-26.

Between November and December 2025, approximately 24,000 customers experienced low water pressure or little to no water supply. When supplies were restored, a boil water notice was issued to households. South East Water said that this was the result of a plant failure at the Pembury water treatment works. The water quality regulator, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, launched an investigation, which found that the failure was the result of “long-standing weaknesses and failures in process control, monitoring, maintenance and operational management”.

In January 2026, approximately 30,000 customers experienced little to no water supply. South East Water said that this was the result of Storm Goretti and extreme cold weather.

In April 2026, 6,000 customers experienced water supply problems. South East Water said that this was the result of a burst water main.

In May 2026, further South East Water customers across Kent experienced outages. South East Water said that this was due to increased demand for water during hot weather.

Water companies have been subject to extensive scrutiny, both from the government and Parliament.

Following the 2024 general election, the government has undertaken a broad programme of water reforms. These include plans to abolish Ofwat, and to reform the way in which the water industry is regulated.

The Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has an ongoing inquiry on reforming the water sector, which included a specific report into ‘failures at South East Water’. The committee report details some of the main supply interruptions over time, and notes the continued involvement of regulators, who told South East Water “repeatedly and jointly for over four years, [that] the company needed to invest in new infrastructure to be properly resilient to potential shocks”.

Following an oral evidence session where South East Water attributed the problems at Pembury treatment works to an issue with coagulant interacting with raw water, which the Drinking Water Inspectorate attributed to operational management, in May 2026, both South East Water’s Chair resigned and Chief Executive offered his resignation.

In June 2026, an urgent question was asked about the disruption to water supply in the area served by South East Water. Secretary of State for Environment, Emma Hardy, responded on behalf of the government, acknowledging that the most recent outage was the third major one for South East Water customers and said that “fundamental, long-term reform” of the sector was needed.