SE Water Outage
Discussion
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...
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...
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
We are in South East Water area and in Crowborough. On this occasion we have not been cut off but in the last couple of years have been cut off for almost a week for almost a week in the weeks before Christmas twice in the last 4 years. On every occasion its the same problem burst pipes following bad weather and a failure of pumps to get water up the hills in to storage facilities.
Of course on this occasion Tunbridge Wells was off for a week before Christmas because of an issue at Pembury reservoir.
Its just down to a lack of investment in the infrastructure. We have multiple roads with water tipping down them from leaks, they just cant get to fix them fast enough.
Of course on this occasion Tunbridge Wells was off for a week before Christmas because of an issue at Pembury reservoir.
Its just down to a lack of investment in the infrastructure. We have multiple roads with water tipping down them from leaks, they just cant get to fix them fast enough.
It might just be pub talk but a mate of mine who does roadworks in SE London/NW Kent (but not directly affected by this) says that they basically just do a never ending job of putting up and taking down roadworks for water main repairs. He said that a repair is done on one leak which just moves the problem down the road to the next weakest point. No idea if that's true though.
Randy Winkman said:
It might just be pub talk but a mate of mine who does roadworks in SE London/NW Kent (but not directly affected by this) says that they basically just do a never ending job of putting up and taking down roadworks for water main repairs. He said that a repair is done on one leak which just moves the problem down the road to the next weakest point. No idea if that's true though.
There is a significant amount of truth I believe. Just down the road we had a whole series of leaks in about 250 metres of pipe. They replace the whole lot last year. A leak that started last Thursday and was repaired yesterday was within 50 m of where the replacement pipe ends.I'm in the middle of this in Tunbridge Wells, it's grim and I'm fed up now.
It first failed 29th November, they blamed a delivery of bad chemicals. Failed Saturday lunchtime, was off for about 5-6 days, then a boil notice for 10 days.
It was chaos, gridlocked cars trying to get to bottle stations that had already run out. The first station they opened wasn't even in the right town.
This time they're blaming cold weather, storm Goretti (which didn't affect this area), COVID, too many people working at home, the boogie...
It's been about a week of water only in the morning, and now nothing since Monday. The local schools were struggling on with bottles and storage tanks, they've just emailed that they're shut tomorrow.
They're talking about taking SE water's licence away now. Good.
I have very low expectations of facilities and companies. Just a basic level of competence. No sign of that.
It first failed 29th November, they blamed a delivery of bad chemicals. Failed Saturday lunchtime, was off for about 5-6 days, then a boil notice for 10 days.
It was chaos, gridlocked cars trying to get to bottle stations that had already run out. The first station they opened wasn't even in the right town.
This time they're blaming cold weather, storm Goretti (which didn't affect this area), COVID, too many people working at home, the boogie...
It's been about a week of water only in the morning, and now nothing since Monday. The local schools were struggling on with bottles and storage tanks, they've just emailed that they're shut tomorrow.
They're talking about taking SE water's licence away now. Good.
I have very low expectations of facilities and companies. Just a basic level of competence. No sign of that.
I live in SW London and you re welcome here to borrow the shower or to refill your hot water bottles but you d pass my brother s place en route which is literally five times the size of ours so I d head their first if I were you.
Joking aside, how do we get to this point? Just how s
t are our political class? How/why does Ofwat allow this?
Joking aside, how do we get to this point? Just how s
t are our political class? How/why does Ofwat allow this?Randy Winkman said:
It might just be pub talk but a mate of mine who does roadworks in SE London/NW Kent (but not directly affected by this) says that they basically just do a never ending job of putting up and taking down roadworks for water main repairs. He said that a repair is done on one leak which just moves the problem down the road to the next weakest point. No idea if that's true though.
It's probably the same everywhere. We're in a Cheshire village and over an 18 mth period until last summer we had our water off 10 times - United Utilities texts provide a handy record. As part of our house refurb 3 yrs ago we changed to a pressurised water system and how I missed the cold water tank in the loft! The number of times we got up in the morning, flushed the toilet only for there to be silence when it should start to refill was ridiculous.They finally replaced the dodgy section of pipe and, touch wood, it's been OK since, but would have saved a lot of grief if they'd done it earlier.
Just remembered a brilliant but of this fiasco...
I logged on to my water account (for the first time ever) to check the credit they've given everyone for the first outage.
The first thing you see when you login? There's a hosepipe ban in effect.
I logged on to my water account (for the first time ever) to check the credit they've given everyone for the first outage.
The first thing you see when you login? There's a hosepipe ban in effect.
Edited by Raify on Thursday 15th January 07:46
scenario8 said:
I live in SW London and you re welcome here to borrow the shower or to refill your hot water bottles but you d pass my brother s place en route which is literally five times the size of ours so I d head their first if I were you.
Joking aside, how do we get to this point? Just how st are our political class? How/why does Ofwat allow this?
The rapid response team has abseiled into the building.Joking aside, how do we get to this point? Just how s
t are our political class? How/why does Ofwat allow this?https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6vm1rp2pjo
asfault said:
There's part of your problem . Everyone protest everything these days..
Exactly this.Currently a lot of the NIMBYs in our village are protesting about a solar farm because there will be construction traffic for 6 months. Same thing when a solar array was installed in the centre of Castle Combe circuit - perfect place for it, no-one can see it, land is otherwise useless, but no, we don't want that because the cable to the grid will come past the village shop.
I don't think there's any incentive for water companies to invest in infrastructure and the regulator seems unwilling, incapable or both of forcing them to do it, but even if they try to, people don't want it in their back yard.
I have a better solution to these outages:
When an outage happens, water supply is cut off at the home address of all Directors, non-exec directors, Chiefs and CEOs of the water company, even if they live out of area. When the problem is resolved they are allowed to reconnect.
The directors and CEOs must be sent to the nearest water distribution centre to lug 6 packs of water into customers cars, because it's pointless having them in the office making strategic directions that have obviously failed. When the water outage is resolved, they can go back to working in the office.
When an outage happens, water supply is cut off at the home address of all Directors, non-exec directors, Chiefs and CEOs of the water company, even if they live out of area. When the problem is resolved they are allowed to reconnect.
The directors and CEOs must be sent to the nearest water distribution centre to lug 6 packs of water into customers cars, because it's pointless having them in the office making strategic directions that have obviously failed. When the water outage is resolved, they can go back to working in the office.
vikingaero said:
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.
Point of order; the Heathrow CEO didn't even get up in the first placeThey 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.
miniman said:
asfault said:
There's part of your problem . Everyone protest everything these days..
Exactly this.Currently a lot of the NIMBYs in our village are protesting about a solar farm because there will be construction traffic for 6 months. Same thing when a solar array was installed in the centre of Castle Combe circuit - perfect place for it, no-one can see it, land is otherwise useless, but no, we don't want that because the cable to the grid will come past the village shop.
I don't think there's any incentive for water companies to invest in infrastructure and the regulator seems unwilling, incapable or both of forcing them to do it, but even if they try to, people don't want it in their back yard.
We need a change of mindset against NIMBYism. Just like drink driving became unacceptable, NIMBYism also needs to become socially unacceptable, whether it's housing, infrastructure or whatever. These things have to be somewhere and that somewhere is somewhere is sometimes next to you. Or me. Tough. We both need to get on with it otherwise everything will crumble and the housing crisis will continue to get worse.
Raify said:
Just remembered a brilliant but of this fiasco...
I logged on to my water account (for the first time ever) to check the credit they've given everyone for the first outage.
The first thing you see when you login? There's a hosepipe ban in effect.
It is a joke, there has been a hosepipe ban in Tunbridge Wells, and probably further afield, since last June. It has been raining a lot since autumn so they obviously don't invest in any infrastructure, it is all siphoned off in dividends and debt payments.I logged on to my water account (for the first time ever) to check the credit they've given everyone for the first outage.
The first thing you see when you login? There's a hosepipe ban in effect.
Edited by Raify on Thursday 15th January 07:46
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