‘They’re a private company, run for profit!’: fury in Kent at South East Water’s outages

“Spitting, fuming, angry and powerless” is how Pat Prestage describes her emotions after a water outage that has affected thousands of homes in Kent during a May heatwave. On Wednesday, 8,000 South East Water customers in Whitstable lost water, with 14,000 more in Tankerton, Ashford, and its surrounding areas facing intermittent supply or low pressure. South East Water’s incident manager, Matthew Dean, said on Thursday that 22,000 people had had water supply problems. The company blamed increased demand amid the hot weather and asked people to use water only for essential purposes. Martin and Pat Prestage, from Whitstable in Kent, feel ‘powerless’ about South East Water’s response to the water shortages. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian Prestage, 67, from Whitstable, lives with a disability that makes her more vulnerable to events like this. At 6.30pm on Wednesday, Prestage’s water supply went off. Her husband, Martin, tried to ring for an emergency delivery but couldn’t get through to South East Water’s emergency line. On Thursday morning he spent more than an hour queueing for water at a bottle station. The Prestages are angry at the company’s response, particularly what the couple describe as the “blitz spirit” in asking customers with water to ease their usage to help those without. “They talk to the public as if they’re a public service. They’re a private company, run for profit!” says Pat. …