"Boil Water" from Noon in Tunbridge Wells

South East Water is resuming water supplies to Tunbridge Wells despite continuing issues with purification, so it's telling customers from midday Wednesday to boil their tap water, before it's consumed.

The company wants people to be able to wash and flush their toilets.

But key instructions from SE Water's "boil water" instruction are:

- Do not drink your tap water unless it has been boiled
- Do not clean your teeth with tap water unless it has been boiled
- Using boiled water for washing dishes is the best practice.

- Do not prepare or cook food using tap water unless it has been boiled
- Your pets should not drink tap water unless it has been boiled

- Only use your dishwasher if it has a hot cycle at a temperature of 65°C or above.

SE Water also answers the question "Who is paying for my increased electricity costs while I have to boil water?" by stating: "Despite the recent increase in the price of energy, the cost of boiling a 2 litre electric kettle is just 6 pence. We expect the impact on your energy bill to be minimal and appreciate your understanding as we work hard to restore the quality of your water supply."

It also answers: "Do water filters help?" with  "No. Domestic filters and cartridges may trap contamination. Do not use water filters instead of boiling."

Earlier South East Water had said that all the 24,000 properties it supplies in Tunbridge Wells were again without water after more problems in its systems. 

The latest update from South East Water can be found here:
https://aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk/interruption/138030

It says: "To ensure customers in Tunbridge Wells receive a water supply while we overcome these issues, we are urging customers from midday today, Wednesday 3 December 2025, to boil their tap water, before it's consumed, until we inform them otherwise."

Click here for more:  https://www.southeastwater.co.uk/help/works-and-outages/boil-notice-for-customers-in-tunbridge-wells/

South East Water's latest update at 8.41am reads:

BOIL NOTICE After recharging our network in Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding areas slowly, we have seen a recurrence of the water quality issues that caused the initial shutdown of our water treatment works in Pembury.

Because of this, we are currently unable to produce drinking water from the Pembury treatment works that meets the strict regulatory standards required for consumption.

We understand many customers have been without water for a number of days, causing issues with basic public health functions such as flushing the toilet or showering.

We have therefore taken the decision to pump water from our treatment works into the network, which can be used for flushing toilets or showering, but crucially cannot be used for drinking without boiling first.

From 12:00, midday on 3 December, until further notice, we are asking all customers in the Tunbridge Wells area who have experienced low pressure or no water since 29 November to boil water before being consumed.

A map and list of postcodes is available on our website and all customers in the affected areas will receive a letter in the post imminently.

We like to reiterate that the water is safe to use for washing and flushing toilets, but we are introducing a boil water notice for customers in the area before using water for drinking and cooking.

We're very sorry to all customers who have been experiencing issues with their water supply. We know how tough it is to be without water and we are doing all we can to restore supplies to customers as soon as possible.

We have three bottled water stations that will remain open until 10pm tonight (Wednesday). The locations of these are:
Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, St John's Rd, Royal Tunbridge Wells TN4 9TX
RCP Parking, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 5TP
Odeon Cinema Knights Way, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3UW

Our customer care team and Water Direct are continuing to deliver bottled water to eligible customers signed up to our Priority Services Register.” To sign up for our Priority Services Register customers can visit southeastwater.co.uk/psr or by calling 0333 000 0365 Further information and FAQs on the boiled water noticing can be found on our website: southeastwater.co.uk/boil-notice

Customers who are unable to travel

South East water said that since the start of the incident their customer care team and Water Direct have carried out over 8,000 deliveries of bottled water to our most vulnerable customers who are already registered on our Priority Services Register (PSR).

Causes of New Water Quality Issues

Steve Andrews who's Head of operations at South East Water, also gave more details about the latest issues to BBC Radio Kent.  He said:
"It's definitely another human error. All of our equipment has been working as normal, but it's either a change in the raw water quality or a change in the blend of the chemicals that when mixed with the water is causing that reaction.

"The chemicals that we use are coagulant - they bind to the particles in the water and that enables us to remove them, to filter them out of the water before it is pumped into supply.

"So when that process doesn't work correctly, we get particles coming through the treatment process and we have to stop that before it's pumped into supply.

"We are investigating to see if we need to change the blending of those chemicals with the water that we're currently treating. It's been a really strange year with different weather climate conditions.

"And as I said, we use a number of different sources for this water treatment works. So we have to vary that chemical treatment of the water when we see the different raw water qualities."