Taps Empty for 24,000 People

A breakdown at a water treatment works in Pembury is causing taps to run dry in most of Tunbridge Wells, with issues likely to last until Monday.

The MP for Tunbridge Wells Mike Martin says 24,000 people have been affected and he says the situation is "utterly disgraceful."

A bottled water station reopened at around 4pm on Sunday at the St John's Road Sports centre TN4 9TX in Tunbridge Wells. It had been closed earlier when it ran out of supplies.

Another site has been operating at RCP Car Park, TN2 5TP which is at the bottom of Major York's Road next to the roundabout.  

A third site has now been opened at Odeon Cinema Knights Way, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3UW.

UPDATE at 9.30pm: St John’s and RCP have plenty of water and Odeon knights park does not. So if you are waiting at Odeon then you could try moving to one of the other sites.

All three sites should remain open until 10.30pm. If you are a South East Water Priority Customer and need a bottled water delivery because you CANNOT get to a distribution site, then please call 0333 000 0365.

There was another bottled water station in Tonbridge at the Sovereign Way car park TN9 1QH, but that had to close due to the Tonbridge Festival.

South East Water’s Incident Manager Marc Sims said: “We’re sorry to customers in the Tunbridge Wells area who continue to have no water or low pressure. 

“Our Pembury treatment site has stopped working due to an issue with the chemicals used at the site, resulting in the water treatment works site shutting down. We are aware of around 24,000 customers who are without water.

“We are continuing to move water around and tankering into the network to try and bring as many supplies back as possible. 

“We have received a new batch of the affected chemical this morning and the required water quality checks are currently underway." 

Mike Martin said earlier this morning he had spoken to the CEO of SE Water about why only one bottled water station was open initially and that wasn't even in Tunbridge Wells. Mike Martin reported: "I said that the bottled water station yesterday in Tonbridge was totally unacceptable". 

Mike Martin continued: "By the way - it’s ok to drink any residual water last in the system. Anything that comes out of taps is safe."

South East water said in a statement at 6.13pm: 
"We are very sorry to customers in the Tunbridge Wells area who have no water or low pressure this evening.

"We are currently carrying out the necessary water quality testing at our site. In the meantime, we are continuing to move water around and tanker into the network to restore as many supplies as possible.

"We have set up bottled water stations at the following locations:
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

"These will be open until 10:30pm this evening. Our customer care team and Water Direct will continue to deliver bottled water throughout the evening to our most vulnerable customers.

Earlier it said: "We're sorry to customers in the Tunbridge Wells area who continue to have no water or low pressure. This is due to an issue at our Pembury Water Treatment Works, resulting in the site shutting down. This has caused the dependent local drinking water storage tanks to run low."

"We estimate that this will be resolved by Monday 1st Dec 2025 at 6:00 AM" 

Further updates will be posted here by South East Water, although the information has not always been up to date through the day:
https://aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk/interruption/138030

West Kent Radio presenter Brian Johnson (pictured below), who lives in Tunbridge Wells said: "We have hot water from the tank currently, although I guess this will run out, so we’ve been able to shower. It’s the drinking water that’s dried up. We’re not at the top of our hill, so usually we’re OK."

The owner of one sandwich shop near the RVP shopping centre, Saunders Sarnies, posted this picture: