SE Water Outage

[Biker 1]

Looks like our infrastructure is basically knackered. I'm several miles away from the epicenter & have had low pressure & intermittent outages since Saturday - how people manage in a block of flats with family/kids & no water to even flush the toilet I have no idea!
Knock on effects of closed businesses & schools must be costing a fortune.
MPs are trying to get the CEO sacked, but that will not solve the immediate problems.
What a mess: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2026-01-10/custo...

[Spare tyre]

We are southern England, think we were off for 4 or 5 days last year

Loo flushing with a bucket
Drinking from bottles we filled up from someone kind nearby

But yes, if I had a bad back and didn’t drive I’d have been relying on neighbours etc

We now store lots of water in big bottle purchased from a supermarket - perhaps enough for a week of drinking

Main issue is the school shut, which had a knock on

[Ian Geary]

I caught this on BBC Kent radio yesterday, though I'm in Surrey on the Sussex boarder and not affected.

Incase surprised there wasn't a thread.

Seems like multiple problems
I. Ageing infrastructure not coping with demand
Ii. It being cold in winter
Iii. How se water have dealt with it.


The ceo and chair of se water are due another grilling by mps, but ultimately is this just chickens coming home to roost for the uk's under investment in infrastructure?

This discussion has the risk of just rerunning the argument on water privatisation though, which was played out thoroughly in the Thames water thread.

[vikingaero]

During the previous Tunbridge Wells incident, Mr Hinton, the CEO of SEW was notably absent. He is very much like the CEO of Heathrow who returned to bed rather than dealing with the fire.

They basically buried their heads in the sand. It was only after the incident that they made statements and as a result they were hauled before Parliament.