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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder WTF is going on at South East Water.

69 replies

JenniferBooth · 12/01/2026 16:43

Im not in their area but have seen yet again on the news that their customers are yet again without water. Priority customers arent getting deliveries of bottled water. Ppl are being expected to drive miles to collect it. Schools are closed Absolute shit show.

OP posts:
MrsMurphyIWish · 14/01/2026 18:58

GCSEBiostruggles · 14/01/2026 09:19

IMO the gov need to see where the profits from the last 12 years have gone, round up the benefactors and legally enforce that they return public funds for infrastructure to enable right to life. There should be no huge profits on basic necessities - the Tories selling water companies off for profit was always going to end this way.

Agree with this. I’m with Severn Trent and they were the only company last year to not raise their bills to a crazy amount. I’ve lived in the Midlands all my life (47) and have never have water issues.

Walkaround · 14/01/2026 19:10

Walkaround · 14/01/2026 18:52

South East Water is the canary in the coalmine. All the water companies in the South East have been saying for years that the region is running out of the water required to sustain the size of the population in the area, but successive governments have not only failed to produce and action plans to ensure the rapidly approaching emergency is dealt with, they have actively exacerbated the issue by pushing the housing agenda over and above all else. The vast majority of the new housing that has been built is not properly adapted to the climate we already have, let alone the even worse that is yet to come. Humans need more than the shell of a house, they need resilient, effective infrastructure, and plentiful fresh food and water to sustain healthy, productive lives. What we are instead heading towards is uninsurable homes that fill with untreated sewage-water during regular flooding events, regularly lose access to mains water supplies when it is too cold, too wet, or too dry, and which are uninsurable. And that’s before factoring in the inadequate, overloaded roads, hospitals, and transport services. South East Water may currently be the worst, but it’s not the one and only. Events like this will become quite normal. And certain arseholes expect our creaking infrastructure to sustain water and power hungry data centres (so that more of us humans can become unemployed and water-starved).

Edited

There used to be talk of piping water from other parts of the country to the South East. I’m sure that would go down like a lead balloon elsewhere…

Alternativelyviewed · 14/01/2026 19:16

Water will become a huge issue for people

Private companies running utilities like this will never work.

Water costs are absolutely awful I don't understand why more isn't made of them. I find them worse than lexxy and gas.

BurntBroccoli · 14/01/2026 19:26

JenniferBooth · 12/01/2026 17:37

Christ what a shitty third world service

Privatisation of essential services such as water should never have been allowed.

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Original poster
JenniferBooth · 14/01/2026 19:40

There is no accountability in the UK and that is a big part of the problem.

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Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 14/01/2026 19:44

I feel sorry for the people who have now been without water for days.
But can't help but notice that the SE Water area is a part of the country where people voted for water to be privatised in the first place. Perhaps now they will campaign for that to be reversed (and let the shareholders take the hit - they don't deserve to be compensated, having allowed this situation to develop over the past 20-30 years).

Original poster
JenniferBooth · 14/01/2026 19:45

Saw a woman on the news who is undergoing a cancer procedure tomorrow and needs a bath/shower.

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bozzabollix · 14/01/2026 19:54

I’m in a SE Water area but currently unaffected. It’s only a matter of time.

Our house has undiscovered springs, I’m highly tempted to find a water diviner. If anyone knows one in Kent let me know.

One of the so called Project Fear warnings was about water availability post Brexit. Has that had a bearing or is it just the incompetence of SE Water and its need to produce profit rather than keep its infrastructure well funded.

ZookeeperSE · 14/01/2026 20:17

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 14/01/2026 19:44

I feel sorry for the people who have now been without water for days.
But can't help but notice that the SE Water area is a part of the country where people voted for water to be privatised in the first place. Perhaps now they will campaign for that to be reversed (and let the shareholders take the hit - they don't deserve to be compensated, having allowed this situation to develop over the past 20-30 years).

What?
No one voted for water to be privatised. In fact, plans were shelved more than once because it didn’t have public backing.
Or do you mean the general election of 1987? Think you’ll find vast swathes of the map was blue after that election….

Walkaround · 15/01/2026 06:10

Tryingtokeepgoing · 14/01/2026 13:47

That's not quite the full story though, because it ignores investment made by the water companies. That is around quarter of a trillion pounds since they were privatised.

That certainly looks as if it hasn't been enough investment, but it is an investment in infrastructure at twice the rate that the Treasury was allowing the then state owned water companies to invest before privatisation. So while they do now have around £60 billion of debt, the other £200odd billion of investment has been funded by shareholders, who have received 'only' £80 billion in dividends.

The question is whether under public ownership (a) would the water companies have made £200odd billion pounds of profit and (b) whether the Treasury would have allowed £250 billion pounds to be invested in infrastructure, or whether, as for all nationalized companies, it would have been syphoned off to fund political gimmicks and pet projects for short term gain.

If you recall, every industry that was privatised had been starved of investment for decades - water, power, communications, transport. Privatisation was the only way out, because there was no more money, and British (and may other) governments can't run businesses. The problem is much more deep seated than private / public ownership unfortunately.

Show quote history

Isn’t that a long way of saying, the problem is short-termism, which is a feature of our democracy?

Lilylolamillie · 15/01/2026 06:37

I’m in SE Water area and used to live in the affected area and still work there so have a lot of friends & family there.

At the end of last year the whole town had no water for 5 days then a 10 day boil notice with no drinking water.

Now, despite news reports saying this current episode started at the weekend, many homes had supply for only a few hours each morning since last Tuesday and have had none since Sunday morning . Initially there was only one bottle station which is on a busy road - it’s hard to turn right out of the site at the best of times so it’s been an accident waiting to happen there. The bottle station has regularly run out of water and of course there is none available in any local shops. Many schools have been closed despite the local MP asking SEW to prioritise sending them bottled water and grey water to flush toilets so mock GCSE and A level exams can go ahead. The dialysis centre in Tunbridge Wells was heavily impacted before Christmas and patients forced to travel to London.

Last night SEW announced that for the worst affected area of 6,500 households pumps will be turned off for 36 hours to try and restore water levels in the hope there is running water for everyone on Friday. The local MP certainly doesn’t seem confident this will work. If water is restored on Friday I’m sure the surge in use will deplete supplies and they’ll be back to square one. Their website shows burst mains springing up all over Kent & East Sussex since this started.

My employer (office) has already advised it’s likely to stay closed and ask us to continue to WFH next week (probably a good idea whatever happens when we can WFH and reduce water use in the town while the issues continue).

This morning I can see the issue has now impacted south Tonbridge who lost water overnight (this is next town to T.Wells). My partners elderly relative lives there so he’ll need to make sure she’s okay this morning. I doubt she’ll be on the priority register but she has good neighbours who will collect water for her. She may need to come and stay with us.

I expect we’ll be affected too at some point. At the start of the issues supplies were lost in this area for 48 hours and we were streets away from the large affected area so it’s only a matter of time. No bottle station was set up for the recent outage but we have at least some left from the last outage in the area.

Original poster
JenniferBooth · 17/01/2026 20:33

How are things now? Have you got the water back and/or are still having to boil it before use?

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Putthekettleon73 · 17/01/2026 20:48

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 14/01/2026 19:44

I feel sorry for the people who have now been without water for days.
But can't help but notice that the SE Water area is a part of the country where people voted for water to be privatised in the first place. Perhaps now they will campaign for that to be reversed (and let the shareholders take the hit - they don't deserve to be compensated, having allowed this situation to develop over the past 20-30 years).

We moved here 14 years ago. Definitely didn't vote for privatisation of water companies!! Or for the party that brought it in.
The schools closing was awful. And the effect on businesses that are already struggling to stay afloat is awful.

CalmShaker · 17/01/2026 21:09

Feel really sorry for the ones going through this.

I've only experienced one time we had water issues and that was only for a few hours and bad enough, many years ago and when the water finally came out it was brown. When your water comes back on, does it run brown for awhile?

ZookeeperSE · 17/01/2026 21:15

JenniferBooth · 17/01/2026 20:33

How are things now? Have you got the water back and/or are still having to boil it before use?

Still ongoing daily. Currently no water supply in Harrietsham. It’s almost as if the affected areas are being deliberately moved around every day or so to avoid paying out too much compensation….

Original poster
JenniferBooth · 17/01/2026 21:17

ZookeeperSE · 17/01/2026 21:15

Still ongoing daily. Currently no water supply in Harrietsham. It’s almost as if the affected areas are being deliberately moved around every day or so to avoid paying out too much compensation….

Show quote history

Wow What absolute fuckers

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ZookeeperSE · 17/01/2026 21:20

Local parish councillors have been brilliant, and in areas local to me that were left without water and not given a water station at all, the parish councils went out and organised water bottles and deliveries themselves. There’s also a group of local MPs really putting the pressure on but, honestly, without Government intervention I’m not sure what they can realistically achieve. Getting the CEO out doesn’t mean the future will be any different if nothing else changes.

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