South East Water issue update on water shortage in Sussex

South East Water CEO David Hinton has penned a letter to residents informing of the situation that has led to the current shortage of drinking water in parts of Sussex.

The letter states that low rainfall, changing consumption habits and hot weather are the main factors that have led to the shortage.

Mr Hinton wrote: “I am writing to personally apologise for the drinking water supply shortages in Sussex, and to provide an update on the situation.“In this letter, I will explain why this situation has arisen, how we are working to overcome it and to offer reassurance to our customers across the region.“On June 16, due to record levels of demand for drinking water over consecutive days, we announced that we would be introducing a Temporary Use Ban – more commonly known as a ‘hosepipe ban’ – to protect the water supply for all our customers in Kent and Sussex.“Despite our best efforts, the severe conditions in the run up to June 16 meant that some customers were affected by low pressure or no water.“We are sincerely sorry to those affected and want to reassure impacted customers that they will be compensated in line with our Guaranteed Standards of Service (if you were affected we will be writing to you separately).“We are often asked: how we got to this point? The short answer is that there have been significant changes to supply and demand, driven by three key factors:

“Changing consumption habits: Over the past three years the way in which drinking water is being used across the South East has changed considerably. The rise of working from home has increased drinking water demand in commuter towns by around 20 per cent over a very short period, testing our existing infrastructure.

“Low rainfall: The severe lack of rainfall since April has increased demand for treated drinking water. Water butts are empty, lawns are drying out and farms have used their stored water supplies. Our reservoir and aquifer stocks of raw water, essential to our water supply but not ready to be used, are in a good position. However, demand for treated mains water, which takes time to process and deliver was greater than we could meet. Despite every available water treatment works and supply source operating 24/7 at maximum output, we could not treat water quickly enough to meet the pace of demand and therefore had to act.

“Hot weather: Hot days often result in spikes in demand as customers stay hydrated, cool off or tend to their gardens. Over the past week we have needed to find water to supply the equivalent of an additional four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne, every day.

“What are we doing about this? To keep the taps flowing, we are currently prioritising projects across our system to increase the amount of water that we can supply, whilst implementing solutions at points in our network where water supply can be a challenge.

“We deeply regret falling short of our high standards and want to assure you that we are doing everything that we can to plan and build for the future – ensuring a reliable and uninterrupted water supply.”